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AUTHOR: 


STEUART,  ARCHIBALD 


TITLE: 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCE 


PLACE: 


GLASGOW 


DA  TE : 


1913 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC  MICROFORM  TARGET 


Master  Negative  # 


91-80023-2 


Original  Material  as  Filmed  -  Existing  Bibliographic  Record 


^i^gfr'F  ""^ 


Restrictions  on  Use: 


Steuart,  Archibald     Francis  * 

Scottish  influences  in  Russian  history,  from 
the  end  of  the  16th  century  to  the  beginning  of 
the  19th  century:  an  essay...   ^Glasgow, 
Maclehose,  1913.  * 

xviii,  141  p.   plates,  fold,  table.    20  cm. 


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SCOTTISH    INFLUENCES   IN 
RUSSIAN    HISTORY 


fmt' 


PUBLISHBO  BT 

JAMES  MACLEHOSE  AND  SONS,  GLASGOW, 
9itbliciur0  to  ttu  WLidtunitn. 


MACMILLAN 
I/tw  York,  • 
Toronto,  •  • 
London,  •  • 
Camirijge,  • 
Edinburgh,  • 
Sydney,    -    • 


AND  CO.,   LTD.,   LONDON. 

Th*  Macmillan  Co. 

The  Macmillan  Co.  o/Canada. 

Sim/izn,  Hamilton  and  Co. 

Bowes  and  Bowes. 

Douglas  and  Foulis* 

Angus  and  Robertson. 


MCMXIII. 


TSAR   ALEKSEI    MICHAELOVITCH   AND   HIS   SECOND   CONSORT 
NATHALIA    KIRILLOVNA    NARISHKINA. 


Pen-and-ink  Sketch  by 
James  S.   Richardson. 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 
IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

FROM  THE  END  OF  THE  i6tH  CENTURY 
TO  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  I9TH  CENTURY 

^n  Essay 


BY 


A.  FRANCIS  STEUART 


ADVOCATE 


GLASGOW 
JAMES  MACLEHOSE  AND  SONS 

PUBLISHERS   TO   THE    UNIVERSITY 


"tummmmmm 


■(••"^••^KSHi^PW 


I'  ^ 


/  6  -  l-i^-^^  ^ 


PREFACE 

This    little    book    on    Scottish    influence    in 
Russia    has    been    planned    during    the    year 
which  is   the   Tercentenary  of  the  Romanoff 
Dynasty  to  interest  travellers  who  visit  Russia, 
and  also  in  the  hope  of  reminding   Russians 
where  many  of  their  *  instructors '  came  from. 
In  spite  of  our  very  desirable,  but  very  recent 
friendship,  Russia  and  Britain  are  still  too  far 
apart  historically  to   know  much  about  each 
other.     The  old  intercourse  (a  very  limited  one 
when  all  is  said)  between  England  and  Russia 
is  narrated  in  many  books  of  travel,  and  I  have 
therefore   given    it    but   a  short    introductory 
chapter.     I  am  unaware  of  any  book,  however, 
which  shows  separately  to  any  degree  the  part 
the  Scot  played  in  Russia  (individually,  though 
hardly  as  a  nation)  in  helping  to  *  Westernise ' 


»-*«jf  ■• 


PREFACE 

the  great  empire  of  the  Tsars,  so  I  have 
endeavoured  shortly  to  sketch  the  *  service' 
given  by  the  Scots  who  enrolled  themselves 
in  the  Russian  employ.  My  book  is  founded, 
not  so  much  on  Russian,  as  on  French  and 
British  sources,  and  thus  the  dates  and  the 
spelling  of  names  may  be  sometimes  irregular. 
It,  however,  claims  the  privilege  of  an  explorer 
or  that  of  a  pioneer. 

I  have  tried  to  indicate  where  authorities  on 
my  subject  may  be  most  easily  found,  and  have 
therefore  cited  copiously  only  from  the  rarer 
and  less  known  books. 

Some  day  a  Russian  scholar  will  dig  up  lists 
(lists  I  long  to  see)  of  Scottish  names  from  the 
depths  of  the  archives  of  Russia.  I  hope  he 
will  come  soon.  Until  he  does,  I  trust  that 
my  essay  may  help  the  Scot  to  understand 
Russian  history  better,  and  the  Russian  to  be 
interested  in  those  of  the  Scottish  nation  who 
helped  to  connect  his  Byzantine  civilisation, 
marred  as  it  was  and  retarded  by  the  Tartar 
conquest,  with  that  of  Western  Europe. 

I  have  to  thank  especially  my  friends  Mr. 

vi 


PREFACE 

R.  H.  Bruce  Lockhart,  British  Vice-Consul  at 
Moscow,  Mr.  G.  E.  S.  Bowen,  R.F.A.,  Mr. 
John  F.  Baddeley,  and  M.  Vladimir  Ivanovitch 
Kameneff  for  their  valuable  help  in  putting  my 
book  in  order. 

A.    FRANCIS   STEUART. 


79  Great  King  Street, 

Edinbaigh, 

iSth/une^  1913. 


VU 


jl^ag:  \kk^r:imii^>. 


•5fia- «**-«-■> 


I 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I. 

The  first  Scot  in  Russia.  Scots  in  Poland.  The  English 
"  Society  for  the  discovery  of  unknown  lands  "  come 
to  Russia.  The  embassies  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  to 
England,  and  his  desires.  The  policy  of  his  suc- 
cessors       


PAGE. 


CHAPTER   II. 

The  Captives.  Commencement  of  the  Colony  of  the 
Scots.  The  foreign  Faubourg.  Vicissitudes  of 
Scottish  Soldiers 


13 


!( 


CHAPTER   III. 

The  first  Romanoffs.  Michael  Feodorovitch.  His  son 
Aleksei  Michaelovitch.  Refuses  to  recognise  Crom- 
well. Influx  of  Royalist  Scots.  The  Tsar's  marriage 
to  Nathalia  Narishkina,  niece  of  a  Hamilton    - 


CHAPTER  IV. 

General  Patrick  Gordon  of  Auchleuchries 

ix 


31 


47 


^Wa 


iiMa 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  V. 


PAGB. 


Gordon's  hopes  from  a  Catholic  king  in  England.  Given 
permission  to  return,  leaving  his  wife  and  family  as 
hostages.  His  report  to  James  H.  and  VII.  His 
return  to  Russia,  and  his  service  there      -        -        -        6i 


CHAPTER  VI. 
Collaborators  of  Peter  the  Great 73 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Bruce  Family  in  Russia.     The  escape  of  General 

Gordon 95 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Catherine  I.    Peter  II.    Marshal  Keith.    Anna  Ivanovna. 

Other  Scots.    Elizabeth 107 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


rAGB 


The  Tsar  Aleksei  Michaelovitch  and  his  second 
Consort  Nathalia  Narishkina.  From  a  medal. 
Drawn  by  James  S.  Richardson       -         -         Frontispiece 

Medals  of  Peter  I.  and  Catherine  II.  From  the 
collection  of  casts  given  by  the  Empress  Catherine  IL 
to  Dr.  Rogerson 72 


CHAPTER   IX. 

Scottish  Families  settled  in  Russia.  The  Court 
Physicians.  Rogerson.  Other  Scots— Sir  James 
Wylie,  Count  Barclay  de  Tolly,  Lermontoff.  Con- 
clusion       


119 


Index 


138 


XI 


yttmitm 


X 


SUMMARY  OF  CHIEF  EVENTS  IN 
RUSSIAN  HISTORY. 

(CONDENSED  FROM  RAMBAUD'S  HISTORY  OF 
RUSSIA  AND  OTHER  SOURCES.) 

Ivan  Vassilievitch,  The  Great,  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow 
(1462-1505). 

Novgorod,  Tver,  Rostov  and  lavoslavl  annexed 
to  Muscovy.  Permia  conquered.  Moscow  freed 
from  the  suzerainty  of  the  Tartar  Khan  of  the  Great 
Horde,  1478.  Recommencement  of  Russia  as  a  free 
State. 

Vassili  Ivanovitch,  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow  (1505- 
1533). 
Smolensk  taken,  15 14.     Tartar  invasion,  1521. 

Ivan  Vassilievitch  (Groznie),  The  Terrible  (1533- 
1584). 
Assumed  the  title  of  Tsar  of  Muscovy,  1547. 
Married  first  Anastasia  Romanovna  Romanova. 
Conquest  of  the  Tartar  Khanates  of  Kazan  1552 
and  Astrakhan  1554.  War  with  the  Livonian 
Order,  Poland,  the    Tartars    and    Sweden.     Poland 

•  ■  • 

Xlll 


hi 


CHIEF  EVENTS 

and  Lithuania  united,  1569.  Polotsk  and  Livonia 
lost  to  Russia.  Novgorod  reduced  and  the  inhabi- 
tants massacred,  1570.  Treaties  with  Elizabeth, 
Queen  of  England.  Foreigners  enter  Russian  Mili- 
tary service.    Siberia  conquered,  1558-84. 

Feodor  (L)  Ivanovitch  (i 584-1 598). 

Rise  of  Boris  Feodorovitch  Godounoff,  brother  of 
the  Tsaritsa  Irina.  The  Peasant  attached  to  the 
glebe  and  made  a  Serf.  Treaties  with  Elizabeth. 
Murder  of  the  Tsar's  half-brother,  Dmitri.  End  of 
the  Dynasty  of  Rurik. 

Boris  Feodorovitch  (Jodounoff  (i  598-1605). 

Elected  Tsar  on  his  brother-in-law's  death. 
Foreigners  favoured.  Appearance  of  the  *  False 
Dmitri; 

The  'False  Dmitri.' 

Claiming  to  be  the  murdered  Dmitri  Ivanovitch, 
son  of  *  The  Terrible '  Tsar,  entered  Russia  with 
Polish  support  The  Godounoff  family  murdered  or 
cloistered.  He  was  married  in  Moscow  to  the  Polish 
Maryna  Mniszek,  who  was  crowned  with  him. 
Murder  of  the  Tsar  and  massacre  of  the  Poles  in 
Moscow,  1606. 

Vassili    Ivanovitch    Shuiski     (1606).     Time    of     the 
Troubles. 

Elected  Tsar.  War  with  the  Poles  and  the 
*  Second  False  Dmitri/  a  Cossack  brigand.  Abdica- 
tion of  the  Tsar,  who  enters  a  monastery. 

xiv 


*  s 


'i 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


Vladislav,  son  of  Sigismond,  King  of  Poland,  recog- 
nised as  Tsar. 

Invasion  of  Russia  by  the  Poles,  occupation  of 
Moscow.  Seizure  of  the  Baltic  by  Sweden.  Rising 
of  the  Russians  under  Minine  and  Pojarski,  161 2. 
Retirement  of  the  Poles.  Election,  in  161 3,  of 
Mikhael  Feodorovitch  Romanoff,  son  of  the  Patriarch 
Philarete,  who  was  associated  with  him  in  power. 

Michael  Feodorovitch  Bomanoff  (161 3-1645). 

First  Tsar  of  the  Romanoff  Dynasty.  Polish  war 
ended.  The  *  Second  False  Dmitri '  killed.  Ambas- 
sadors dispatched  to  Western  Europe.  Novgorod 
restored  to  Russia  by  the  Swedes  through  the  media- 
tion of  England. 

Aleksei  Blichaelovitch  (1645-1676). 

Conquest  of  Smolensk  and  Ukraine  from  the 
Poles.  Foreign  soldiers  enlisted,  many  Scots. 
Growing  desire  for  Westernisation  owing  to  the 
second  marriage  of  the  Tsar  with  Nathalia  Kirillovna 
Narishkina.  Embassy  of  Doktouroff  to  Charles  I  of 
England.  The  English  merchants  confined  to 
Archangel  on  the  execution  of  Charles  I. 

Feodor  (II.)  Aleksievitch  (1676-1682). 
War  with  the  Tartars. 

Ivan  Aleksievitch  (1682- 1696)  and 

Peter  a.)  Aleksievitch  (1682- 172 5),  The  Great. 

Two  brothers  made  equal  Tsars  under  the  regency 
of  their  sister,  Sophia  Aleksievna,  which  lasted  until 

XV 


(I 

i 

ii! 


CHIEF  EVENTS 

1689,  when  Peter  forced  the  Regent  to  take  the 
veil,  and  assumed  the  complete  power  though 
allowing  his  brother  the  title  of  Tsar.  Expeditions 
against  Azof,  1695- 1696.  First  journey  to  the 
West,  1697.  Revolt  and  total  destruction  of  the 
Streltsi.  War  with  Sweden,  ending  in  the  battle  of 
Poltava,  1709.  Ingria  taken  by  Russia  in  1702. 
St.  Petersburg  founded,  1703,  as  a  'Window  into 
Europe.'  War  with  Turkey  and  Treaty  of  the 
Pruth,  171 1.  The  Tsar  visited  Paris.  Peace  of 
Nystad,  172 1,  which  gave  Livonia,  Esthonia, 
Carelia  and  part  of  Finland  to  Russia.  The  Tsar 
declared  Autocrat.  Trial  and  death  of  the  Tsare- 
vitch  Aleksei  Petrovitch,  17 18.  The  Tsar  declared 
Emperor,  172 1.     A  doubtful  will. 

Catherine  (I.)  (172 5-1 727). 

Widow  of  Peter  I.  Power  of  Menschikoff.  Peter 
I.'s  Westernisation  continued. 

Peter  (H)  Aleksievitch  (i 727-1 730). 

Grandson  of  Peter  I.  Fall  of  Menschikoff.  Rise 
of  the  Dolgoroukis.  Return  of  the  Court  to  Moscow. 
The  Tsar  buried  there. 

Anna  Ivanovna  (i 730-1 740). 

Niece  of  Peter  I.  Elected  under  a  constitution. 
Constitution  abrogated.  Fall  of  the  Dolgoroukis. 
Rise  of  Biron,  Duke  of  Courland.  Return  of  the 
Court  to  St.  Petersburg.  War  of  the  Polish  succes- 
sion and  against  the  Turks,  1735-39. 

xvi 


ill 


A 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

Ivan  Antonovitch  ( 1 740-1 741). 

Grandnephew  of  Anna.  Under  the  regency  of 
his  mother  Anna  Leopoldovna.  War  with  Sweden. 
Deposed  and  imprisoned  until  his  death. 

Elizabeth  (1741-1761). 

Daughter  of  Peter  I.  seized  the  throne.  War 
with  Sweden.  Acquisition  of  South  Finland  by 
Russia.     War  against  Frederick  II.  of  Prussia. 


Peter  (HI.)  Feodorovitch  (1761-1762). 

Nephew  of  Elizabeth.     Reversal  of  policy.    Prus- 
sian influence.     Dethroned  and  murdered. 

Catherine  (II.)  (1762- 1796). 

Princess  Sophia  of  Anhalt-Zerbst  ascended  her 
husband's  throne  and  governed  well  through  her 
favourites.  Turkish  war,  1767-74.  The  battle  of 
Tchesm^  I770-  First  partition  of  Poland,  1772. 
Conquest  of  the  Crimea,  1783.  Second  Turkish 
war,  1787-1792.  War  with  Sweden,  1788-1790. 
Second  partition  of  Poland.  Third  partition,  which 
gave  most  of  Poland  to  Russia.     Persian  war. 

Paul  (I)  (1796-1801). 

Son  of  the  last.  Campaigns  of  the  Ionian  Islands, 
Italy,  Switzerland,  Holland  and  Naples.  Great 
waste  of  Russian  power.  Alliance  with  Napoleon, 
and  a  great  scheme  against  the  British  in  India. 
The  Emperor  murdered  by  a  Court  Camarilla, 

xvii 


1    '1 


If 


CHIEF  EVENTS  IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


Alexander   L)  (1801-1825). 

Eldest  son  of  Paul  I.  Napoleonic  wars.  Auster- 
litz,  Eylau,  etc.  Interview  at  Erfurt  Wars  with 
England,  Sweden,  Austria,  Turkey  and  Persia. 
Napoleon  invades  Russia,  18 12.  Retreat  of  *la 
Grande  Arm^.'  Congress  of  Vienna.  Reforms. 
Serfage  lightened.  Disquiet  in  Poland.  The  Tsar 
a  religious  mystic. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  FIRST  SCOT  IN  RUSSIA.  SCOTS  IN  POLAND. 
THE  ENGLISH  *  SOCIETY  FOR  THE  DISCOVERY 
OF  UNKNOWN  LANDS '  COME  TO  RUSSIA.  THE 
EMBASSIES  OF  IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE  TO 
ENGLAND,  AND  HIS  DESIRES.  THE  POLICY 
OF  HIS  SUCCESSORS. 


\! 


xvni 


U     i 


) 


I 


ft 


I 


I. 


He  would  be  a  bold  man  who  would  state  who 
was  the  first  Scot  who  went  to  Russia.  The 
statement,  however,  has  been  ventured  on  by 
Dr.  J.  Hamel  in  his  book  England  and  Russia^ 
and  he  says  that  *  Master  David/  a  Scot,  Herald 
to  the  King  of  Denmark,  was  envoy  from  his 
master,  King  John,  to  the  Grand  Prince  Vas- 
sili  Ivanovitch,  of  Muscovy,  in  1495.  His 
name  is  commonly  given  as  *  Geraldus,'  the 
russification  of  his  office  of  *  Herald/  but  it 
seems  to  have  been  Kocken,  Kocker,  or  per- 
haps Cock.  He  was  probably  sent  to  Russia 
with  the  Danish  embassy  in  1492,  to  induce 
the  Grand  Prince  to  seize  Sweden  and  its 
dependency,  Finland,  in  return  for  which  the 

'Translated  into  English  by  John  Studdy  Leigh,  F.R.G.S.,  in 
1854.  It  is  very  difficult  to  follow,  but  still  remains  the  best 
book  on  the  subject. 

3 


I 


I  iir  II  > 


I! 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

King  of  Denmark  promised  to  assist  Russia 
against  Lithuania,  and  he  returned  thither  the 
next  year.  He  again  returned  in  1505  with  a 
letter  addressed  to  the  Grand  Prince,  but  found 
that  the  Prince  had  died  in  October;  so  he 
either  remained,  or  was  forced  to  remain  until 
1507,  when  new  envoys  had  reached  the  new 
Grand  Prince  from  Denmark,  and  returned 
with  them.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of 
mark  and  a  trusty  messenger,  and  he  is  men- 
tioned in  the  letter  of  alliance  sent  by  the  new 
Tsar,  Ivan  Vassilievitch,  to  *  our  brother  John, 
King  of  Dacia  (Denmark  ?)  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way '  dated  at  Moscow. 

In  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  Scot- 
tish merchants  spread  in  hordes  all  over  Prussia 
and  Poland^  as  traders,  but  few  as  yet  seem, 
unless  by  chance,  to  have  gone  further  East. 

In  the  reign  of  Ivan  Vassilievitch  the  English 
spirit  of  adventure  which  had  formed  *The 
Society  for  the  Discovery  of  Unknown  Lands' 
first  thought  of  Russia  as  a  field  for  exploration. 

'  A  book  on  *  Scots  in  Poland,'  edited  by  Miss  Beatrice  Basker- 
ville,  is  promised  by  the  Scottish  History  Society. 

4 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


A  Russian  Company  was  formed  (it  employed 
many  people  with  curiously  Scottish-sounding 
names  like  Logan,  Gordon,  Brighouse,  etc.) 
which  traded  at  Rose  Island,  Kholmogory  on 
the  White  Sea,  and  later  had  an  'English 
house '  in  the  Varvarka  at  Moscow  ;  but  the 
real  settlement  of  the  Scots  in  Russia,  which 
was  involuntary,  and  yet  left  a  great  mark  on 
the  history  of  Russia,  was  quite  distinct  from 
this  body. 

Ivan  the  Terrible  had  some  definite  idea  that 
the  way  Russia  had  been  cut  off  from  the  rest 
of  Europe  by  the  Tartar  invasion  and  long 
subjugation  had  done  harm.  No  Russian  till 
his  father's  time  (the  Danish  embassy)  had 
been  allowed  to  leave  Russia,  and  it  was  only 
fear  of  internecine  war  that  made  him  seek  that 
friendship  with  England  that  is  so  curious  in 
history.  One  of  his  ambassadors  was  wrecked 
on  the  coast  of  Scotland,  Ossip  Gregorievitch 
Nepeja,  who  with  a  suite  of  sixteen  persons  had 
been  sent  in  1556  as  envoy  to  Philip  and 
Mary  in  the  *  Edward  Bonaventure.'     It  was 

near  Pitsligo  Bay  the  wreck  took  place,  and  all 

5 


I  111 


HI'    IIWHJU..U1H 


Mie 


^ 


.^ 


SCOTTISH   INFLUENCES 

the  Tsar's  presents  were  lost,  with  the  English 
captain,  Richard  Chancellor,  his  son  and  seven 
Russians   of  the   ambassador's   suite.     Robert 
Best,  interpreter  to  the  embassy,  escaped  with 
the    ambassador.      The    unfortunate    refugees 
left  Edinburgh,  whither  they  had  had  a  *  Tal- 
matsch'  (tolmach)  or  'speachman'  (i.e.  inter- 
preter)  sent   to   them  from   London,  on   14th 
February,    1557,   with  but  a  few  trifles  saved 
from  their  wreck,  to  begin  their  embassy  so 
long   hindered.      This   embassy   was    followed 
by  others  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  sent  Ran- 
dolph,   Jenkinson,    and    Daniel    Silvester    to 
Russia;    and   by   his   ambassadors,    Pissemski 
and    Andrei    Gregorievitch    Savin,    while    he 
granted   privileges   to   the   English,  the   Tsar 
showed  two  curious  definite  desires.     First,  in 
the  event  of  his  long-suffering  subjects  putting 
an   end   to  his   reign,  that   he   wished  a  safe 
residence  in  England;  and,  secondly,  that  he 
wished  for  an  English  wife,  the  Queen  if'  pos- 
sible,   and    afterwards    (though    he    had    just 
married  his  seventh  wife,  Maria  Feodorovna 
Nagoi)   the   Queen's  kinswoman,  Lady  Mary 


a 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

Hastings,  as  his  bride.^  Queen  Elizabeth,  as 
her  habit  was,  promised  much  but  did  little. 
To  the  Tsar's  remonstrance  about  the  *bad 
conduct'  of  her  subjects,  she  replied  that  the 
wrong-doers  were  probably  Scots,  who  had 
strayed  over  the  Russian  border  from  Poland 
or  Sweden,  and  so  beyond  her  jurisdiction. 
She  sent  a  physician,  Dr.  Robert  Jacob,  who 
favoured  the  English  match ;  and  the  result 
was  that  a  Russian  ambassador,  Feodor  Andree- 
vitch  Pissemski,  was  sent  to  London.  He 
returned  with  an  English  ambassador,  Sir 
Jerome  Bowes,  who  was  well  received,  and 
succeeded  (through  the  help  of  Jerome  Horsey, 
an  English  agent)  in  getting  exclusive  privileges 
for  the  English  merchants  when  the  Tsar  sud- 
denly died,  leaving  the  Tsardom  to  his  son,  the 
mild  and  feeble  Feodor  Ivanovitch,  and  the 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  latter's  able  and 
rather  unscrupulous  brother-in-law,  Boris  Feo- 
dorovitch  Godounoff. 

^This  appears  to  have  been  suggested  to  the  Tsar  by  his 
physician,  Dr.  Bomel  (educated  at  Cambridge),  whom  he  so 
cruelly  put  to  death.  The  idea  was  again  suggested  by  one 
Aegidius  Crow. 

7 


!  ■ 
i 


k 


SCOTTISH   INFLUENCES 

He  rose   rapidly,   and  was  named    ^Prince 
Protector,'  and   proved   himself  the   friend  of 
foreign  ways.    Bowes,  who  had  been  maltreated 
on  Ivan's  death,  was  allowed  to  return  home. 
Sir  Jerome   Horsey  went   back  to  Russia  as 
ambassador   in   1585,  and  wrote  an  admirable 
account  of  his  travels  ;  so  did  Giles  Fletcher. ^ 
The  English  house  in  the  Varvarka  prospered 
exceedingly  in  spite  of  double  dealing  on  every 
side  and  '  interloping '  Englishmen.     The  Tsar 
died  in  1598,  and  Boris  Godounofif  was  elected 
to  succeed  him.     In  1600  he  sent  an  ambas- 
sador, Gregory  Ivanovitch  Mikulin,  to  Queen 
Elizabeth  to  cement  the  friendly  understanding. 
It  is  interesting  to  find  that  he  was  visited  in 
London   by  the   Scottish   ambassador   (whose 
master,  James  VI.,  became  King  of  England  as 
James    I.    on    Elizabeth's   death,    three    years 

'  Captain  Thomas  Ogiivy,  burgess  of  Dundee,  was  denounced 
for  not  appearing  before  the  Privy  Council  of  Scotland,  29th 
Dec,  1595,  to  answer  to  a  charge  of  having  intromitted  with  the 
goods  of  a  Danzig  ship,  the  property  of  the  Duke  of  Florence 
Among  the  cargo  was  a  barrel  of  books,  '  all  of  ane  historie 
anent  the  descriptioun  of  the  cuntreis  of  Polonia,  Moscovia 
Prussia  &  utheris  adjacent,  to  the  noumer  of  xxxix.'—J?ePis/er  of 
the  Privy  Council  of  Scotland,  vol.  v.  p.  251. 

8 


% 


\ 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

later),    the    Earl   of   Both  well.      He   tried   to 
arrange  another  'English  match'  for  the  new 
Tsarevitch,  Feodor  Borissovitch.     On  Queen 
Elizabeth's  death  James  I.  dispatched  another 
mission  to  Russia,  and  obtained  benefits  for  the 
merchants,  but  these  were  vitiated  by  the  Tsar 
Boris's  death  and  the  Time  of  the  Troubles. 
The  first  Romanoff  Tsar  did,  however,  find  the 
English  of  use.     They  lent  him  money  when 
he   was   bankrupt,    and   it   was  owing   to  the 
intercession  of  the  ambassador  of  James  I.  and 
VI.,  John  Merrick,  who  went  to  Moscow  in 
1 6 14,  that  Gustavus  Adolphus  of  Sweden,  in 
161 7,  gave  up  Novgorod,  Roussa  and  Ladoga 
to  Russia,   while  retaining  the  maritime  con- 
quests in  the  Baltic.     This  was  a  great  gain  to 
Russia,    yet    the   English  merchants  did  not 
receive  privileges  of  sufficient  value,  owing  to 
the  opposition  of  the  Russian  traders.     They 
continued,  however,  to  have  some  success  until 
the  news    of   the    execution   of   their    King, 
Charles  I.,  reached  the  Tsar  Aleksei  Michaelo- 
vitch,  when  that  stalwart  supporter  of  Royalty 
forbade  them   to  exercise  trade   in   his   realm 

B  9 


J 

L 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

except  at  Kholmogory  on  the  White  Sea,  and 
banished  them  from  the  rest  of  his  dominions. 
He  repaid  his  obligations  to  the  Stuarts  also  by- 
sending  aid  to  King  Charles  II.  during  his  long 
pauper-stricken  exile  in  Holland. 


II 


lO 


m 


CHAPTER  II. 


I: 


THE      CAPTIVES.  COMMENCEMENT      OF      THE 

COLONY     OF  THE     SCOTS.      THE     FOREIGN 

FAUBOURG.  VICISSITUDES     OF     SCOTTISH 
SOLDIERS. 


1^1 


II. 


The  beginning  of  the  Scottish  colony  in 
Russia  was  very  different  from  that  of  the 
English  merchants.  The  Scottish  colony  be- 
gan as  prisoners.  To  give  the  words  of  the 
Englishman,  Sir  Jerome  Horsey : 

*The  Emperor's  souldiers  and  army,  farr 
greater  in  number,  ranged  farr  into  the  Sweth- 
ians  country,  and  did  much  spoill  and  rapine;^ 
brought  many  captives  awaye  to  remote  places 
in  his  land,  Liefflanders,  French,  Scotts,  Dutch- 
men and  some  English.  The  Emperower  seat- 
linge  and  seatinge  a  great  many  of  them  in  the 

^  In  1557-58  Livonia  was  ravaged  by  the  Tsar's  troops,  com- 
posed mostly  of  savages,  Mordvinians  and  Chermisses,  who 
burned  everything,  *  not  even  sparing  the  child  in  its  mother's 
womb.*  The  Livonians  invoked  Polish  aid.  After  more  war — in 
1572  he  raided  Esthonia — the  Tsar  had  to  surrender  Livonia  to 
Poland,  in  1582,  by  the  Treaty  of  Zapolok.  It  was  evidently 
about  1 581  that  the  Scots  were  transported  to  Moscow. 

13 


ll 


I) 


*. 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 


?r 


W 


h 


cittie  of  Musquo,  to  inhabitt  by  themselves 
without  the  cittie ;  and  by  my  mediacion  and 
means,  beinge  their  conversant  and  famillier 
in  the  Court,  well  knowen  and  respected  of 
the  best  favorets  and  officers  of  that  tyme,  I 
procured  libertie  to  buyld  them  a  Churche,  and 
contrubetted  well  therunto  ;  gott  unto  them  a 
learned  preachinge  minister,  and  devine  service 
and  metinge  of  the  congregacion  everie  Saboth 
daye,  but  after  their  Lutheren  profession,  grew 
in  shortt  tyme  in  favour  and  famillier,  and  in 
good  like  of  the  Russ  people,  livinge  civillie  but 
in  dollfull  and  mourninge  manner  for  ther 
eyvill  loss  of  goods,  friends  and  contrye.  At 
which  tyme,  among  other  nacions,  there  wear 
fower  score  and  five  pore  Scotts  souldiers  leaft 
of  700  sent  from  Stockhollme,  and  three 
Englishmen  in  their  company,  brought  amonge 
other  captives,  in  most  miserable  manner, 
pittious  to  behold.  I  laboured  and  imploied 
my  best  indevors  and  creditt  not  only  to  succor 
them,  but  with  my  purss  and  paines  and  means 
gett  them  to  be  well  placed  at  Bulran,  near  the 

Musquo ;  and  altho*  the  Emperowr  was  much 

14 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

inflamed   with   fury   and   wrath   against  them, 
torteringe  and  puttinge  many  of  these  Swethian 
souldiers  to  deth,  most  lamentabylie  to  behold, 
I  procured  the  Emperower  to  be  told  of  the) 
difference   between   these  Scottsmen,  now  his 
captives,   and   the   Swethians,  PoUonians  and 
Livonians,  his  enymies.     They  wear  a  nacion 
strangers,   remote,   a   venturous   and   warlicke 
people,  readie  to  serve  any  Christian  prince  for 
maintenance  and  paye;  as  they  would  apear 
and  prove,  if  it  pleased  his  majestie  to  imploie 
and  spare  them  such  maintenance  now  owt  of 
hart  and  cloths  and  arms,  as  they  may  shew 
themselves  and  valure  against  his  mortall  enemy 
the  Cryme  Tartor.     Yt  seems  some  use  was 
made    of    this   advice,^   for    shordy    the    best 
souldiers  and  men-at-arms  of  these  straingers 
wear  spared  and  putt  apart,  and  captaines  of 
each  nacion  apointed  to  govern  the  rest;  Jeamy 
Lingett  for  the  Scottish  men,  a  villiant  honest 

'Ivan,  in  1552,  captured  Kazan,  and  in  1555  sent  Ivan 
Shcremetieff  against  Perekop  with  13,000  men(R.  Nisbet  Bain's 
Slavonic  Europe,  p.  115).  Constant  warfare  against  the  Tartars 
in  and  out  of  Crimea  was,  no  doubt,  kept  up,  particularly  after 
the  burning  of  Moscow  by  the  Tartars  (*The  Crimme')  in  1571. 

IS 


:saaaki 


II 


\  I 


i 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

man.  Mony,  cloths,  and  dayelly  alowance  for 
meat  and  drincke,  was  geaven  them,  horss,  hey 
and  oatz  ;  swords,  peece  and  pistolls,  wear  they 
armed  with.  Pore  snakes  afore,  loke  nowe 
chearfully.  Twelve  hundred  of  them  did  better 
service  against  the  Tartor  then  12  thowsand 
Russes,  with  their  shortte  bowe  and  arrowes. 
The  Crim,  not  knowinge  then  the  use  of  peece 
and  pistolls,  stroken  dead  of  their  horses  with 
shott  they  sawe  not,  cried  : — **  Awaye  with  those 
new  divells  that  com  with  their  thunderinge 
puffs ; "  wherat  the  Emperor  made  good  sportt. 
Then  had  thei  pencions  and  lands  alowed  them 
to  live  upon,  marrid  and  matchd  with  the  Livo- 
nian  faire  weomen ;  ^  increased  into  famillies, 
and  live  in  favour  of  the  prince  and  people. 
O !  how  glad  was  I  that  the  Emperowr  toke  noe 
noatice  of  these  fewe  Englishmen  taken  captive 
emonge  them!  An  oportune  quarrel,  to  my 
liff,  that  was  so  well  knowen  and  conversant  in 
their  court ;  but  especiallie  a  fit  prey  for  the 
Emperor  to  seize  upon  the  English  merchants 

^  He  calls  them  elsewhere  ^  The  Livonian  ladies,  the  fairest 
weomen  of  the  knowen  world.' 

16 


ii 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

goods,  havinge  a  stocke  in  company  for  at  least 
100  thowsand  marckes  sterlinge  in  his  country. 
For,  but  a  littell  before,  the  Kinge  had  sold  to 
one  Thomas  Glover,  a  chieff  agent  for  that 
company,  a  wiff  bowren  of  a  noble  howse  in 
Polland,  Basmanovey,  taken  captive  at  Pel- 
lotcoe,  for  tenn  thowsand  Hengers  ducketts 
in  gold  ;  and  yet  shorttly  after,  fallinge  into  som 
displeasur,  robbed  him  of  16  thowsand  pounds 
more  in  cloth,  silke,  wax,  furrs  and  other  mer- 
chandizes  and  sent  him^  and  his  deare  wife 
emptie  out  of  his  land.'« 

There  were,  one  way  or  other,  evidently  a 
good  many  Scots  in  Russia  during  the  time  of 
Ivan  the  Terrible.  Dr.  Collins,  the  English 
Physician  of  Tsar  Aleksei  Michaelovitch,  nar- 
rates an  incident  at  the  Court  of  the  Terrible 
Tsar.  'Some  foreigners,  English  and  Scots, 
had  laughed  at  certain  things  the  Tsar  had 
done  during  a  drinking  bout  The  Tsar  when 
he  heard   this  had  them  stripped  naked  and 

'  He  was  banished  from  Russia  in  1573.  His  marriage  took 
place  before  1567,  when  Queen  Elizabeth  complained  to  the  Tsar 
of  his  conduct— See  Hamel,  pp.  186,  191,  221. 

«  Travels  of  Sir  Jerome  Horsey  (Hakluyt  Society),  pp.  182-184. 
C  17 


fi 


:^ 


i 


i  i 


M 


f!' 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

forced  them  to  pick  up,  one  by  one,  five  or 
six  bushels  of  peas  which  had  been  poured  into 
his  room.  Then  he  gave  them  drink  and  sent 
them  away.'  That  there  were  many  is  shown 
too  by  his  statement  that  *  some  old  residents  in 
Russia  have  noticed  that  out  of  two  hundred, 
English,  Scots  and  Dutch,  who  have  embraced 
the  Russian  Faith,  hardly  one  has  died  a  natural 

death.' ^ 

From  his  associates  the  English  envoy,  Giles 
Fletcher,  also  evidently  knew  something  of 
Scottish  customs.  He  says  that  in  the  Russian 
towns  '  Every  house  hath  a  paire  of  staiers, 
that  lead  up  into  the  chambers  out  of  the  yarde 
or  streat,  after  the  Scottish  manner.' «  Horsey 
adds  another  passage  about  the  Scots  later :  • 

•And  the  PoUonians  and  Swethians  com- 
bynded  and  plotted  how  each  of  them  might 
invade  each  others  teritoris  and  anctient 
bounds ;  toke  good  opportunitie  to  recover  all 
back  again  which  the  old  Emperor  Ivan  had 

1  From  the  French  Translation  of  Dr.  Collins's  Present  State 
of  Russia  (Paris,  1679),  PP-  9)  67. 
«  TheRusse  Common  Wealthy  p.  19. 
»  Trceuels  of  Sir  Jerome  Horsey  (Hakluyt  SocictyX  p.  225. 

18 


iiiii'j.'iw  ^^-ti^tmm 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


gotten  from  them. .  .  .  Some  Swethen  souldiers 
escaped  thenc  and  came  to  the  Musquo  to  serve 
the  Emperor ;  among  whom  was  one  Gabriell 
Elphingsten,  a  valiant  Scottish  captaine,  by  the 
report  of  the  letters  he  brought  to  me  from  Cor- 
ronell  Steward,  that  served  the  King  of  Den- 
marke,  in  comendacion  of  him  and  six  other 
Scotts,  souldiers  in  his  company,  but  all  verie 
bare  of  monny  and   furnitur.     Desired  me  to 
grac  place  and  suplie  their  necessities.     I  dis- 
burst  to  him  and  them  300  doUers ;  put  them 
in   apperrell,   and    bought    them    pistolls    and 
swords ;   and  when  they   wear  marched   wear 
better  liked   of  then  they   Swedian   souldiers 
that  came  in  ther  company.     I  gott  Captaine 
Elphingstone  the  charge  over  them  all,  begenod 
(sic)  of  mony,  horss,  and  allowancence  for  meat 
and  drincke.     Behaved  themselves  well  for  a 
tyme,  yet  could  not  repaye  nor  recompence  me 
to  this  day,  as  by  their  letters  apeareth.' 

But  one  General  Carmichael,  a  Scot,  entered 
(apparently  voluntarily)  the  service  of  the 
Terrible  Tsar.  Scottish  history  is  altogether 
silent  about  him,  though  he  was  uncle  to  Sir 

19 


r 


i 


t 


I 


\i 


:|     ^ 


m 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

John  Carmichael,  Warden  of  the  Border,  of  the 
Hyndford  family.  He,  in  1570,  was  made 
commander  of  5000  of  the  Tsar  s  men  during 
the  Polish  War,  and  saw  many  scenes  of  horror 
(and  Russian  history  is  full  of  them),  and  later 
became  Governor  of  Pskoff.  It  would  be  inter- 
esting to  know  more  about  his  career. 

Other  Scots  drifted  into  the  Russian  service 
and  were  continued  in  that  of  Ivan  Groznie's 
son,  the  quiet  Feodor.  Giles  Fletcher,  writing 
in  1 59 1,  says  *  of  mercenarie  soldiers  that  are 
strangers  (whom  they  call  nemschoy),  they  have 
at  this  time  4300  of  Polonians :  of  Chircasses 
(that  are  under  the  Polonians)  about  four 
thousand,  whereof  3500  are  abroad  in  his  gari- 
sons,  of  Deutches  and  Scots  about  150,  of 
Greekes,  Turks,  Danes,  and  Sweadens,  all  in 
one  band  an  100  or  there  abouts.  But  these 
they  use  only  upon  the  Tartar  side  and  against 
the  Siberians.*  They  used  Tartar  levies  against 
Poland  and  the  West.  These  had  all  set  allow- 
ances from  what  he  calls  the  Prechase  shisivoy 
nemschoy} 

*  Fletcher's  The  Russe  Common  Wealthy  pp.  52,  73. 

30 


IN   RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


The  Scottish  settlers,  excluded  like  all  heretics 
from  the  Kitai  Gorod  (China  City)  and  the 
Byelo  Gorod  (White  City)  of  Moscow,  were 
placed  in  the  Nemetskaya  Sloboda,^  *the 
dumb  suburb/ 

The  Russian  word  nemefz— originally  mean- 
ing 'dumb' — was  gradually  applied  to  the 
*  dumb  *  inhabitants  who  knew  little  of  Russian. 
In  process  of  time  it  got  to  mean  'German,' 
but  it  included  all  the  Protestant  foreigners.* 

The  Scots  married,  as  we  have  seen,  with 
their  fellow  exiles,  usually  Livonians  and  Ger- 
mans. One,  a  Hamilton,'  almost  certainly  one 
of  the  Swedish  prisoners,  had  in  course  of 
time,  two  descendants,  sisters,  both  married  to 

*  Situated  *  beyond  the  gates  of  the  old  Capital,  towards  the 
north-western  comer  of  the  modem  city,  in  the  quarter  lying 
between  Basmannaia  Street  and  Pokrovskaia  Street,  where  at 
the  present  day  most  of  the  Protestant  and  Catholic  churches 
stand.'—K.  Waliszewski's  Pe^r  the  Great,  p.  15. 

*R.  Nisbet  Bain's  The  First  Romanovs,  p.  122. 

'The  Annuairedela  Noblesse de Russie,  1889,  tells  us  that  the 
name  became  in  Russia  Rehbinder,  *singuli6re  corruption  du 
mot  ^Hamilton,  ancienne  famille  Anglaise  {sic)  arriv6e  en 
Russie  d^jk  au  commencement  du  XVI  !•  Si^le.'  Hel^ne 
Karlova  de  Rehbinder,  died  1869,  married  Raphael  Alexievitch 
Ostafieff.    The  name  also  became  corrupted  to  Khomutoff. 

21 


7,  .^ 


w 


i 


III 


1:1 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

Russians,  one  to  Artamon  Sergievitch  Matveeflf 
and  the  other  Feodor  Poleukhtovitch  Narish- 
kin,^  names  we  shall  hear  again^  as  these 
marriages  had  a  real  bearing  on  Russian 
civilisation. 

The  gentle  Tsar  Feodor  left  but  a  slight 
mark  on  Russian  history,  save  as  the  last  of 
the  Dynasty  of  Rurik,  and  when  his  wife's 
brother,  Boris  Feodorovitch  Godounoff  entered 
on  the  scene  we  find  him  much  interested  in 
foreigners.  The  English  merchants  believed 
in  him  thoroughly,  but  his  rule  was  not  long 
enough  for  them,  and  the  end  of  his  dynasty  too 
swift.  His  successor,  the  False  Dmitri  (who 
claimed  to  be,  and  indeed  perhaps  was,  the 
son  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  by  his  seventh  wife) 
had  a  Scot  in  his  train  whose  history  is  instruc- 
tive of  the  vicissitudes  of  Russia. 

Captain  David  Gilbert,  a  Scot,  had,  with 
the  Frenchman,  Captain  Margaret,  and  other 
international  scoundrels,  entered  the  service  of 
the  elected  Tsar,  Boris  Godounoff.  On  his  death 
he  served   in  the   bodyguard  of  the   *  False  * 

*  Story  of  Moscow,  by  Wirt  Gcrrarc,  p.  121. 

22 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

Dmitri,   which    (significant   fact   enough)   was 
composed  of  foreigners.     The  bodyguard  con- 
sisted   of   300    English,   French    and    Scots, 
divided  into  three  squadrons,  and  commanded 
by  officers  of  each  nation.^     He  was  one  of  the 
fifty-two   strangers   whom   the  second   'False 
Dmitri'   wished   to  drown   in   the   Oka  on  a 
sudden  suspicion.    These  foreigners  had  already 
been  driven  from  Koselsk  towards  Kaluga  on 
the  Oka,  when  Martin  Beer,  the  chaplain,  and 
Captain   Gilbert,  together  with   three  others, 
Ensign  Thomas  Moritzen,  and  Reinhold  von 
Engelhard    and    Johann    von    Reenen,    two 
Livonian   nobles,   ventured  to  cross  the  river 
to    implore    and    secure    their    pardon    from 
Maryna  Mniszek,  through  the  medium  of  the 
ladies   who    were  with    her,   to   intercede   for 
them.     This  Polish  lady,  the  wife  of  the  two 
successive     pseudo-Dmitris,    for    she     recog- 
nised   both  as  husbands  rather  than  give  up 
her  position    of   crowned   Tsaritsa,   therefore 
became  the  preserver  of  these  'innocent  and 
calumniated    persons.'      Gilbert    subsequently 

^  Dr.  CoUins's  Present  State  0/ Russia  (French  editionX  p.  283. 

«3 


il  J 


f 


Iljl 


!l 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

served    in    the    Polish    ranks,    but  was   soon 
taken     prisoner     and     brought     to     Moscow. 
Sir  John  Merrick,  who  returned  to  England 
in  1 617,  then  induced  King  James  to  intercede 
for  him  with  the  Tsar  Michael  Feodorovitch. 
Dr.  Hamel  writes :  'In  the  Tradescant  (Ash- 
molean)  Museum  at  Oxford  I  discovered  the 
original  dispatch  from   Michael  Feodorovitch, 
which    contains    a    reply    to    James,    wherein 
Gilbert's  great  crime  is  circumstantially  repre- 
sented.    By  this  it  appears  that  on  account  of 
his  desertion  to  the  Poles,  and  the  share  he 
had  taken  in  the  many  pillagings  and  blood 
sheddings    at    Moscow,  and    in    the    Empire 
generally,  he  had  forfeited  his  life;  but  that 
at  the  King's  request,  he  should  be  pardoned, 
and   might  return  to  his  native  country  with 
Volunsky,  the  ambassador,  who  was  dispatched 
to  England  in  161 7.    The  above-named  Russian 
dispatch  (Gramota),  discovered  by  me  at  Oxford, 
is  much  damaged.     It  is  therein  said,  that  in 
the  letter  from  King  James,  delivered  by  Sir 
John  Merrick,  it  was  asserted  that  Gilbert  was 
taken    prisoner    by   Sholkevski's    people,   and 

»4 


.'-      i 


>     >»_'  J  "  «-»'■  '  I  JUllfflJ" 'L  V  L  '1  !'.JlJl.'.t... J-  -!'.:' 


'Ml'-:. 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


obliged  to  enter  the  Polish  service,  but  that 
he  was  again  taken  prisoner  by  the  Russians 
without  having  anywhere  lent  his  assistance  in 
injuring  them,  and  that  he  had  now  been  in 
fetters  three  years.     The  King  requested  that 
he  might  be  set  at  liberty,  and  permission  given 
him  either  to  return  to  his  native  country  or  to 
enter  in  Russian  service.'    Gilbert  had  engaged 
to    serve   the   Tsar   Boris   Feodorovitch,    and 
under  Vassili  Shuiski.     Then  he  had  gone  over 
to  the  second  False  Dmitri,  and  subsequently  to 
the   Poles.     He   came   to   Moscow  with   Zol- 
kiewski  (in  the  Polish  army  of  Invasion),  and 
was  afterwards  taken  prisoner  by  the  Russians 
while  fighting  against  them.    Dr.  Hamel  found, 
in  1836,  among  the  MSS.  of  the  Orusheinaya^ 
Palace  at  Moscow  that  Gilbert,  Captain  Jacob 
Margaret,  Robert  Dunbar  (another  Scot),  and 
Andrew  Let  (who  had  been  recently  baptised) 
were  taken  into  the  military  service  by  Afanassi 
I  vanovitch  Vlasseff  in  1 600- 1 60 1 .    Gilbert  went 
to  England,  but  returned  to  Russia  with  his 
son  Thomas  in  one  of  the  Tradescant  ships  in 

'  Dr.  J.  Hamel,  England  and  Russia^  1854,  pp.  402-407. 
D  25 


/': 


.! 


t? 


m 


h 


lit 


m 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

1618.  'During  his  stay  in  England/  says  Dr. 
Hamel,  *  Captain  Gilbert  gave  some  account  of 
the  first  Pretender  Demetrius.  According  to 
him,  Demetrius,  a  few  days  before  his  end,  and 
consequently  very  soon  after  his  nuptials  ^  (for 
between  both  events  but  nine  days  intervened), 
saw  two  apparitions  in  the  night,  which  so 
much  disturbed  him  that  he  first  came  to 
Gilbert  in  the  ante-room,  where  his  life-guards 
were,  and  then  sent  for  Butschinski,  his  private 
secretary. 

'Gilbert  likewise  related  in  England  that  he 
received  from  the  second  Pretender  Demetrius 
a  written  invitation,  in  which  the  writing  of 
the  first  usurper  was  imitated.  When  Gilbert 
approached  him  with  his  guards  he  displayed 
so  accurate  a  knowledge  of  all  the  affairs  of  the 
first  Pretender  that ...  he  should  have  believed 
in  the  identity  of  the  one  with  the  other  ...  if 

1  To  Maryna,  daughter  of  George  Mniszek,  Palatin  of  San- 
domir.  The  False  Demetrius  married  her  at  Moscow  on  May  9, 
1606,  and  she  was  then  crowned  Tsaritza.  Demetrius  was  killed 
on  May  17th  by  being  thrown  from  the  window  of  his  palace  in 
the  Kremlin  by  the  conspirators.  The  way  another  was  able  to 
claim  his  pretensions  was  that  his  mangled  body  was  shown  to 
the  crowd  of  rioters  masked. 

26 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

he  had  not  been  personally  so  well  acquainted 
with  the  first.*  The  first  Dmitri  was,  he  said,  a 
man  of  '  very  prepossessing  exterior/  while  the 
second  (who  6zen  entendu  wished  to  drown 
Gilbert  in  the  Oka)  was  'a  very  deformed 
wretch,'  quite  different.  He  said,  too,  he  had 
spoken  to  the  Polish  Hetman  Ruskinski  of 
this  difference,  but  received  the  answer,  *  It 
is  no  matter,   Captaine,   this   Demetrius   shall 

serve  our  turne  to  be  revenged  of  the  

Russe.' 

In  1610^  another  Scot,  Captain  Robert  Carr, 
accompanied  Gilbert  and  his  son  to  Russia. 
He  commanded  one  of  the  six  companies  of 
British  cavalry  which  on  June  24,  1610, 
remained  for  the  longest  time  on  the  battlefield 
in  the  defeat  of  the  new  Tsar  Vassili  Shuiski's 
army  by  the  Poles  at  Kluchino  under  the  Grand 
Hetman  Zolkiewski.  He  there  lost  his  whole 
company,  but  remained  unwounded.  The 
names  of  the  other  captains  were  Benson, 
Crale,  Creyton  (Crichton),  Kendrick  and 
York.     Young   Thomas   Gilbert  and  Captain 

'  Hamel  says  1618— no  doubt  a  misprint. 

27 


i 


l!« 


\ 


iN 


f^' 


Ji*. 


i^R 


^i| 


*( 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 


Carr^  returned  to  England  in  1619,  but  Captain 
David  Gilbert  remained  in  Russia  and  most 

likely  died  there. 


1  He  may  have  returned  to  Russia.  At  least  a  noble  Russian 
family  Kar  (among  the  many  noble  families,  like  the  family  of 
the  Bestucheffs— from  Best,  an  Englishman— of  foreign  origin^ 
originally  like  the  Bruces  *from  North  Britain,'  is  mentioned  by 
William  Tooke  in  his  View  of  the  Russian  Empire  during  the 
Reign  of  Catherine  the  Second  i^ondsiXi^  I799)- 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE  FIRST  ROMANOFFS.  MICHAEL  FEODORO- 
VITCH.  HIS  SON  ALEKSEI  MICHAELOVITCH. 
REFUSES  TO  RECOGNISE  CROMWELL.  IN- 
FLUX  OF  ROYALIST  SCOTS.  THE  TSAR'S 
MARRIAGE  TO  NATALIA  NARISHKINA,  NIECE 
OF  A  HAMILTON. 


fiilit: 


I 


i\\ 


'U\ 


i 


28 


— -^--ratti 


ri 


'%  )\ 


K 


W 


ill 


h 


n 


li 


III. 

After  the  quick  change  of  Tsars,  theGodounoffs, 
*  false  Dmitris/  the  Shuiskis,  and  the  rapine  and 
murder  that  came  in  their  train,  it  was  a  mercy 
for  Russia  that,  by  what  passed  at  that  date  for 
the  will  of  the  people,  the  first  Tsar  of  the  new 
Dynasty,  Michael  Feodorovitch  Romanoff,  was 
elected.     The  Romanoff  family  stood  high  in 
popular  estimation.     They  were  descended  in 
the  female  line  from  the  Princes  of  Susdal  of 
the  blood  of  Rurik,  connected  by  marriage  both 
with  the  old  Dynasty  of  Rurik  and  the  newer 
one  of  Godounoff.    More  than  all,  the  new  Tsar 
was  an  amiable  young  man,  soon  to  be  supported 
by  the  guidance  of  his  father,  the  Patriarch 
Philarete,  and  already  by  that  of  his  mother, 
the  astute  Nun  Marfa,   in  the  world,   Ksenia 
Ivanovna   Shestova.      He  was  summoned  to 

31 


■m*^'!»' 


m 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

the  throne  in  March,  1613,  and  a  stable 
Dynasty  was  once  more  established.^  To  have 
a  better  army  was  his  first  thought,  and  the  fear 
of  another  Polish  war  forced  him  to  send  for 
foreign  mercenaries  to  teach  the  native  levies 
European  methods.  In  16 14  foreign  soldiers 
began  to  pour  into  Russia,  preferably  from 
Protestant  countries,  for  the  Orthodox  Church 
looked  askance  at  Catholics  on  account  of  their 
Polish  sympathies.  Still,  in  1624  we  note  in 
the  Russian  service  445  foreign  officers,  168 
Poles,  113  'Germans,'  who  probably  included 
the  Scottish  officers,  Leslie,  Keith  and  Matthi- 
son,  and  the  Englishmen,  Fox  and  Sanderson, 
and  sixty-four  Irish.  Tsar  Michael's  army,  says 
Dr.  Nisbet  Bain,*  *  was  an  improvement  upon  all 
previous  Moscovite  armies,  but  when  it  came 
to  be  tested  in  the  Second   Polish  War,  the 

1  Even  in  the  time  of  the  Troubles  trade  must  have  continued 
with  the  West.  In  161 4  Jean  Ruthven  writes  from  Whitehall  to 
Anna,  Countess  of  Eglinton,  about  a  *  bowat '  or  lantern.  *  The 
casements  of  it  is  not  of  home  but  of  Moscovia  glas,  such 
a  thing  as  will  nether  bow  nor  brek  easily.'— ///.r/<?nV»/ 
MSS.   Commission  Reports^  the  Earl  of  Eglintotis   MSS,, 

p.  43. 
>  R.  Nisbet  Bain,  Tke  First  Romanovs,  p.  57. 

32 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

chief  event  of  Michael's  later  years,  its  inade- 
quacy was  most  painfully  demonstrated/ 

In  1 63 1,  when  the  first  Romanoff  reigned,  a 
Scot,    Sir    Alexander    Leslie    of   Auchintoul, 
arrived    in   Russia   with  a  letter  from    King 
Charles  I.  to  the  Tsar  Michael.    The  Patriarch 
Philarete,  then  co-regent,  sent  him  to  Sweden  to 
hire  5000  infantry,  and  persuade  smiths  and 
wheelwrights,    carpenters,    etc.,    to    come    to 
Russia.     He  was  successful,  and   by   the  end 
of    1 63 1    there   were    66,000    mercenaries    in 
Moscow.i     Another    Scot,    Captain    William 
Gordon,  was  at  the  same   time  in   the   Mus- 
covite   service,   and    in    1634,    a    Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Alexander  Gordon.    He  appears  in  Sir 
Thomas  Urquhart  s  '  Jewel '  among  the  *  Scot- 
tish Colonels  that  served  under  the  great  Duke 
of  Muscovy,  against  the  Tartar  and  Polonian.' 
Among    Sir  Thomas    Urquharts    Scots   was 
another,    'Colonel    Thomas    Game,   agnamed 
the  Sclavonian  and  upright  Gentile,  who,  for 
the  height  and  grossness  of  his  person,  being 
in  his  stature  taller,  and  greater  in  his  compass 

'  R.  Nisbet  Bain's  Slavonic  Europe,  pp.  194-195. 
■  33 


i 


1 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

of  body  than  any  within  six  kingdoms  about 
him,  was  elected  King  of  Bucharia/  a  state- 
ment that  we  feel  still  needs  verification! 

In  the  reign  of  the  next  Tsar,  Aleksei 
Michaelovitch  (1645- 1676),  we  find  a  marked 
increase  in  Scottish  influence  in  Russia.  He  it 
was,  and  not  his  greater  son,  who  first  saw 
the  necessity  of  more  foreign  soldiers.  Two 
regiments,  'one  of  cavalry  and  one  of  infantry, 
were  commanded  by  a  Scotsman  as  Colonel, 
and  have  a  staff's  company  in  each  of  them. 
He  received  four  times  the  usual  pay.'^  This 
Scot  was  probably  Sir  Alexander  Leslie  of 
Auchintoul,  already  mentioned  as  in  the 
Russian  service.  On  28th  March,  1633,  Cap- 
tain James  Forbes  had  had  a  Royal  Letter  to 
allow  him  to  raise  in  Scotland  200  men  for  the 
Russian  service  under  Sir  Alexander  Leslie, 
and  on  ist  May,  1633,  a  warrant  to  levy  the 
same  number  of  men  for  Sir  Alexander  Leslie, 
Knight,  'Generall  Colonel  of  the  Forrain 
forces    of    the     Emperour    of    Russia,'*    was 

*  Tooke's  View  of  the  Russian  Empire^  p.  474. 

^  Register  of  the  Privy  Council  of  Scotland^  vol.  v.  2nd  series, 

pp.  79>  548. 

34 


^M 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

granted,  and  though  the  Parliamentary  Wars 
broke  out  soon,  there  is  no  doubt  many  Scots 
went  to  Russia  and  into  the  Russian  Army. 

The  new  Tsar  sent  an  ambassador,  Docturoff 
(Gerasimus),  to  England  to  inform  King  Charles 
I.  of  his  accession.  The  troubles  were  far 
afield  by  that  time,  and  Parliament,  which 
offered  to  receive  his  credentials,  was  spurned 
by  him.  In  May,  1646,  when  he  heard  that 
the  King  had  surrendered  to  the  Parliament, 
the  Russian  again  demanded  an  audience. 
Eventually  he  was  presented  to  both  Houses, 
but  he  still  refused  to  present  his  credentials  to 
anyone  but  the  King.  In  consequence  of  his 
report  the  Tsar  rescinded  the  privileges  of  the 
English  merchants  in  Russia,  and,  when  news 
arrived  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I.,  Aleksei 
issued  a  Ukase  forbidding  them  residence  in 
his  Empire.  *  At  the  request  of  your  sovereign, 
King  Charles,  and  because  of  our  brotherly  love 
and  friendship  towards  him,'  he  wrote,  *you 
were  allowed  to  trade  with  us  by  virtue  of 
letters  of  commerce,  but  it  has  been  made 
known  to  us  that  you   English  have  done  a 

35 


♦ 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

great  wickedness  by  killing  your  sovereign, 
King  Charles,  for  which  evil  deed  you  cannot 
be  suffered  to  remain  in  the  realm  of  Muscovy. '^ 
This  did  not  affect  the  Scots,  whom  the  Tsar 
welcomed  from  their  loyalty.  Cromwell  he 
abhorred,  and  with  him  he  had  *no  dealings,' 
so  the  exiles  who  upheld  the  Stuart  cause  were 
welcomed  with  open  arms. 

In  1656  Thomas  Dalyell  of  Binns,  who 
never  shaved  his  beard  after  the  execution  of 
his  beloved  master,  King  Charles  I.,  and 
another  loyalist,  William  Drummond  of  Crom- 
Hx,  entered  the  Russian  service  together.  The 
former  became  a  General,  and  the  latter  a 
Lieutenant -General,  and  both  returned  to 
Scotland  (only  permitted  to  do  so  by  the  Tsar 
at  the  direct  entreaty  of  King  Charles  II.)  in 
1665.  The  autocratic  rule  they  bore  over 
their  men  was  noticed  by  the  unfortunate 
Covenanters  after  their  return  home.  Kirkton* 
wrote  of  Dalyell  as  a  man  whose  *rude  and 
fierce    natural    disposition    hade    been    much 

>  R.  Nisbet  Bain,  The  First  Romanovs,  p.  98. 
^History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  p.  225. 

36 


IN   RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

confirmed    by    his    breeding    and    service    in 
Muscovia,  where  he  hade  the  command  of  a 
small  army  and  saw  nothing  but  tyrranie  and 
slavery;'     while     Bishop     Burnet    wrote    of 
'  Drumond '  that  he  *  had  yet  too  much  of  the 
air   of    Russia  about    him,   though    not  with 
Dalziels    fierceness.'      Dalyell    was    also    de- 
nounced as   *a  Muscovia  beast  who  used  to 
roast  men,'  and  accused  of  having,  with  General 
Drummond,   'who  had  seen  it  in   Muscovia,' 
introduced  the  playful  torture  of  the  '  thummi- 
kins'  or  thumbscrews   into   Scotland,   though 
Lord  Fountainhall  ^  has  to  point  out  that  it  was 
already  known  there,  though  called  by  'another 
name,'    i.e.     'the    pilliewincks.'      These    two 
Generals  were  'noblie  entertained'  by  the  Tsar, 
and  Drummond  became  Governor  of  Smolensk. 
He  was  created,  in  1686,  Viscount  Strathallan, 
and  Dalyell  died  at  Edinburgh  in  August,  1685. 
One  must  note  also  Paul   Menezius,  a  son 
of  Sir  Gilbert  Menzies  of  Pitfoddels,  who  came 
to   Russia  from   the   Polish   service   in    1661, 
with  Patrick  Gordon.    The  Tsar  Aleksei  at  once 

*  Historical  Notices  of  Scottish  Affairs,  i.  p.  32,  ii.  p.  557. 

37 


'  ^  >i 


ff 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

singled  him  out  and  matched  him  to  a  Russian 
wife,  and  in  1 66 1-2,  he  became  (as  we  shall  see) 
a  member  of  the  suite  of  the  Boyar  Feodor 
Michaelovitch  Milotawski,  envoy  to  Persia.  In 
1672  he  acted  as  the  Tsar's  envoy  to  Prussia 
and  to  Vienna  to  propose  a  league  against  the 
Turk.  He  proceeded  to  Rome  to  petition  Pope 
Clement  X.  to  assist  Poland  against  the  Sultan, 
and  brought  off  his  mission  (which  involved 
the  question  of  the  full  obeisance  as  an  equiva- 
lent of  kissing  the  Pope's  slipper  and  other 
difficult  questions)  with  dignity.  He  returned 
from  his  mission  in  1674,  and  advanced  in 
rank.  He  is  said  to  have  been  tutor  to 
Peter  the  Great  until  1682,  when  the  Regent, 
Princess  Sophia,  sent  him  to  Smolensk,  and 
made  him  take  part,  in  1689,  ^^  the  war  against 
the  Tartars  of  the  Crimea.  The  Narishkins 
called  him  back  to  Moscow  in  that  year,  where 
he  died,  a  Lieutenant-General,  9th  November, 
1694,  leaving  a  wife  and  children.^     Several  of 

^  As  a  faithful  Catholic  and  a  good  Scot,  he,  when  at  Rome, 
obtained  from  Pope  Clement  X.  the  permission  for  a  service 
commemorating  Saint  Margaret,  Queen  of  Scotland.  (See  also 
Chapters  IV.,  V.) 

38 


■'  I 


IN   RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

the  Catholic  family  of  Menzies  tried  their  fortune 
in  Russia  under  the  hospitable  Tsar ;  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Thomas  Menzies  of  Balgownie 
was  another.  He  married  at  Riga  in  July,  165 1, 
*the  Ladie  Marie  Farserson,  borne  of  noble 
and  honourable  parentage  in  the  dukedome  of 
Curland,'  and  was  wounded  and  taken  prisoner 
by  his  countryman,  Lord  Henry  Gordon 
(fighting  for  the  Poles),  at  Szudna,  in  1660. 
We  are  told  that  he  *  dyed  of  his  woundes  in 
Ukraine,  and  was  buried  in  the  fields  at  Szudna.' 
We  shall  see  that  his  widow  remarried,  in  1661, 
Ruitmaster  Ryter  at  Moscow.^ 

Sir  Alexander  Leslie  of  Auchintoul,  who,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  the  chief  of  the  permanent 
foreign  legion,  remained  in  Russia,  and  did  not 
return  to  Scotland  to  die,  like  Generals  Dalyell 
and  Drummond.  He  became  *a  Colonel  there 
under  the  Great  Duke  of  Musco'  and  *had  a 
son  there  called   Theodorus.'*     He  was  made 

*  He  is  also  styled  Sir  William  Reuter.  By  her  first  husband 
she  had  three  sons,  Thomas  Alexander,  who  died  young  at 
Riga,  John  Lodovick,  and  William,  both  living  in  February, 
1672. 

'  Macfarlane's  Genealogical  Collections  (Scottish  History 
SocietyX  vol.  i.  p.  66. 

39 


II 


■ 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

General  and  Governor  of  Smolensk,  and  died 
in  1 66 1  at  the  great  age  of  ninety-five.  Two 
other  Leslies,  probably  basking  in  his  great 
favour,  Alexander  (a  son  of  Kininvie)  who 
'died  sans  Issue  being  a  Captain/  and  a  Leslie 
of  Wardis,  were  in  Russia  about  the  same  time, 
as  well  as  George  Leslie,  a  Capuchin  at  Arch- 
angel. 

It  is  pleasant  to  be  able  to  reconstruct  a  little 
the  coterie  of  Sir  Alexander  Leslie  of  Auchintoul 
from  the  demands  for  *  Birthbrieves,*  which  some 
of  his  brothers-in-arms  desired  and  obtained  to 
prove  their  nobility.  In  1636  (13th  October) 
the  Privy  Council  of  Scotland  ^  allowed  *  Colonel 
John  Kynninmonth,  Governor  of  Nettenburg 
in  Russia,'  of  an  adventurous  family  who  had 
an  offshoot  also  in  Sweden,  to  have  his  *  Certi- 
ficat  of  his  lawful  birth  and  progenie  .  .  .  exped 
under  the  Great  Seal.' 

The  Keith  family, — to  distinguish  themselves 
in  Russia  so  greatly, — sent  an  offshoot  there 
early.  One  *  Lieutenant  George  Keith,  who  did 
serve  under  the  Lord  of ...  as  levtenent  Colonell 

*  Reg,  vi.  2nd  series,  p.  327. 
40 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

in  Ireland  and  is  now  certanely  informit  to  be 
departit  this  lyff  in  Muscovia  some  yeirs  ago.*^ 
He  left  an  heir,  Alexander  Keith,  who  claimed,* 
8th  July,  1662,  under  the  guardianship  of  his 
mother's  brother,  Sir  Alexander  Keith  of  Lud- 
quharn,  to  be  'only  lawful  son*  of  Major 
William  Keith,  only  son  of  Robert  Keith  of 
Kindruct,  eldest  brother  of  the  Russian  soldier. 
Perhaps  the  latter's  widow  or  daughter  (for- 
gotten by  or  not  known  to  her  Scottish  rela- 
tives) was  the  Juliana  Keith  whose  marriage  in 
the  Moscow  Sloboda  of  the  Strangers  we  shall 
find  witnessed  by  Patrick  Gordon. 

There  is  also  a  petition  for  a  *  borebreifif '  from 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Alexander  Hamilton,  who 
thought  that  a  deed  under  'the  great  seall' 
would  *  clear  his  descent,'  and  got  it,  ist  March, 
1670.     He   was  eldest  son  of  Sir  Alexander 

^  Perhaps  this  Keith  sent  home  the  picture  which  belonged  to 
Mary,  Countess  Marischal  (wife  of  the  head  of  the  Keith  family) 
at  the  House  of  Fetteresso,  25th  October,  1722,  and  was  marked 
in  her  Inventory  as  'The  Czar  of  Moscovie.' — The  Lords 
Elphinstone  of  Elphinstone^  by  Sir  William  Fraser,  K.C.B.,  vol. 
ii.  p.  274. 

^  Birthbrieves  from  the  Registers  of  the  Burgh  of  Aberdeen 
(Spalding  Club  Miscellany),  viii.  p.  340. 

F  41 


I 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


i 


I 


.? 


Hamilton  of  Fenton  and  Innerwick  in  East 
Lothian,  and  is  stated  ^  to  have  left  no  issue. 

We  notice  that  in  1665  *  ane  Kenedy,'  a 
Scot,  was  at  Moscow  apparently  connected  with 
medicine,  as  he  was  with  the  English  doctor 
who  '  lodged  by  Dr.  Collins,'  the  Tsar's  physi- 
cian, who  published,  in  1671,  an  excellent  and 
rare  book  on  **The  Present  State  of  Russia." 
Kennedy  was  entrusted  with  letters  to  Scot- 
land,* but  they  never  reached  there,  as  he 
(though  he  lived  after)  '  had  a  fitt  of  a  frensy ' 
at  Riga. 

It  is  also  quite  possible  that  Christopher 
Galloway,  the  *  English  clockmaker,'  who  went 
out  to  the  Court  of  the  Tsar  Michael  Feodoro- 
vitch,  and  was  later  the  architect  of  the  Tower 
of  the  Troitski  Gate  of  the  Kremlin  in  Moscow, 
built  early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  was  from 
North  Britain,  as  his  name  would  seem  to 
indicate. 

We  have  already  mentioned  the  marriages  of 
two  sisters,  Hamiltons,  of  the  Slol^da,  one  to 

^  Douglas,  Baronage  of  Scotland^  vol.  i.  p.  462. 
*  Diary  of  Patrick  Gordon,  p.  69. 

42 


Artamon  Sergievitch  Matveeff,  the  Tsar*s 
favourite  and  chief  Boyar,  and  the  other  to 
Feodor  Poleukhtovitch  Narishkin.  These  had 
a  marked  effect  on  the  position  of  the  Scots, 
and  in  the  following  way.  There  lived,  it  is 
said,  much  with  Matveeff  and  his  Scottish 
wife,^  her  sister's  niece,  Nathalia  Kirillovna 
Narishkina,  a  pretty  Russian  Barinia.  Madame 
Matveeva  educated  her  according  to  the  free 
manner  of  the  Scots,  allowing  her  to  receive 
male  visitors,  a  practice  horrible  to  the  cloistered 
seclusion  of  the  women  of  the  Russian  Terem. 
After  the  death,  in  1669,  of  his  first  wife,  Maria 
Ileinishna  Miloslavskaya,  the  Tsar,  Aleksei 
Michaelovitch,  seeking  distraction,  went  to  see 
his  familiar  friend  Matveefif,  and  in  his  house  met 
his  protegee.  Attracted  by  the  girl,  he  first 
promised  her  a  husband,  and  then  demanded 
her  in  marriage.     Matveeff,  frightened  at  the 

*  Dr.  Collins,  the  Tsar's  English  Physician,  however,  says  that 
the  Grand  Master  of  the  Court,  *  Bogdan  Batfeidg*s'  fondness 
for  Polish  girls  made  his  wife  so  jealous  that  he  had  her  poisoned 
and  that  he  had  heard  he  was  about  to  marry  a  former  love. 
Perhaps  this  was  his  second  wife.  He  adds  *He  did  not 
love  the  English,  having  been  gained  over  by  the  Dutch,  by 
presents.' 

43 


«>.«dB5iiS 


ff 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

honour,  and  more  especially  at  the  un- Byzantine 
way  the  lovers  had  met,  begged  the  Tsar  to 
reconsider  his  decision.  A  via  media  was 
found  The  Byzantine  *  choice  of  brides '  was 
summoned.  Sixty  Boyars'  daughters  came  to 
the  Tsar's  call,  and  then,  as  may  be  imagined, 
the  middle-aged  Tsar  made  choice  of  Nathalia 
and  wedded  her  on  21st  January,  1672. 

Nathalia  Narishkina  thus  became  mother  of 
Peter  the  Great,  and  though  she  did  not  do 
anything  extraordinary  herself  for  the  Western- 
isation of  Russia,  she  undoubtedly  instilled  the 
desire  for  it  into  the  great  brain  of  her  son. 
Her  influence  with  her  husband  was  consider- 
able. She  was  allowed  to  go  unveiled,  and,  once 
at  least,  to  *  receive,'  and — unheard  of  innova 
tion — to  drive  in  an  open  coach  or  litter ;  and 
owing  to  her  influence,  he,  who  began  his 
reign  with  religious  discussions  and  persecu- 
tion of  sorcerers,  ended  it  by  seeing  the  first 
theatrical  performances  in  Moscow. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

GENERAL  PATRICK  GORDON   OF 
AUCHLEUCHRIES. 


44 


i 


IV. 


if  • 


It 


A  Scottish  soldier  of  fortune  (one  gets  tired 
of  hearing  him  described  as  *  a  regular  Dugald 
Dalgetty')  made,  somewhat  unwillingly  in  his 
latter  years,  a  considerable  name  in  the  Russian 
service  from  1661  to  his  death.  This  was 
General  Patrick  Gordon  of  Auchleuchries, 
known  among  the  Russians  as  Patrick  Ivan- 
ovitch.  He  was  the  second  son  of  *a  younger 
brother  of  a  younger  house/  the  Gordons  of 
Haddo,  by  his  wife,  Mary  Ogilvie,  heiress  of 
Auchleuchries  in  Buchan,  and  was  born  in 
1635.  As  a  younger  son  of  a  Catholic  family 
he  was  forced  early  to  seek  his  fortune  abroad, 
but  not  until  he  had  received  a  competent  educa- 
tion (he  took  interest  later  from  far  Russia  in 
the  doings  of  the  Royal  Society),  especially 
in  Latin.     As  he  himself  wrote  in  his  seven- 

47 


y 


■^f^ 


li    ' 


n 


I  I 


I 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

teenth  year,  *  I  resolved,  I  say,  to  go  to  some 
foreigne  countrey,  not  careing  much  on  what 
pretence,   or   to   which   country   I    should   go, 
seing  I  had  no  knowne  ffriend  in  any  foreigne 
place;      Once,    *on   his    own,'    he    sailed    to 
Danzig,  was  entertained  by  Scots  (of  whom 
there   were    many),    thought    of   becoming    a 
Jesuit  at  Bromberg,  *yet  could  not  my  humer 
endure  such  a  still  and  strict  way  of  liveing.' 
After  real  hardships  from  poverty  and  adven- 
tures which  poverty  always  sends,  he  was  be- 
friended by  Scottish  merchants  at  Danzig  and 
franked  on  to  'a  countryman  and  namesake' 
living  (where  did  the  Scots  not  go?)  at  Culmi, 
and   was   sent  on   by  more  Scots  to  Poland, 
where  '  Duke  Ian   Radzewill  had  a  lyfe  com- 
pany all   or   most   Scottismen,'  but   at    Posen 
(always   entertained   by   kindly   Scottish   mer- 
chants) he  eventually  entered  into  the  suite  of 
a  Polish  noble,  Opalinski,  who  was  travelling 
westwards.     With  him  he  went  to  Antwerp. 

There  he  was  enticed  by  a  '  ruitmaster '  of 
his  own  nation  (with  the  help  of  some  wine) 
to  enter  the  Swedish  army  in  1655,  and  thie 

48 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

same  year  was  in  Prussia  and  Poland,  the  war 
with  the  latter  country  having  begun  again. 
Here  he  received  his  baptism  of  fire,  having 
a  horse  killed  under  him  and  being  shot  in  the 
leg.  Then  he  was,  in  1656,  captured  by  the 
Poles.  He  was  liberated  only  on  the  condition 
that  he  would  join  the  Polish  army,  and  as  a 
Catholic  he  probably  preferred  it  to  that  of 
the  Swedes,  into  which  he  had  been  enticed, 
so  he  became  a  dragoon  under  Constantino 
Lubomirski,  Starost  of  Sandets.  Captured  by 
the  Swedes,  he  again  served  under  them,  and 
helped  to  plunder  the  unhappy  country  of  East 
Prussia.  His  life  was  passed  in  being  captured 
and  re-captured,  at  one  time  by  the  Poles  and 
in  1657  by  the  Imperial  Forces.  After  much 
plundering  and  fighting  and  changes  of  mas- 
ters, he  was,  in  1 66 1 ,  thinking  of  joining  the 
Imperial  Service,  when  at  Warsaw  he  received 
an  offer  to  join  that  of  Russia  from  the  *  Russe 
ambassador,  Zamiati  Feodorovitz  Leontieff  and 
Colonell  Crawfuird'  (Daniel  Crawfurd,  son  of 
Hew  Crawfurd  of  Jordanhill  ^),  who  had  been 

*He  was  Governor  of  Smolensk,  and  *died  Governor  of 
o  49 


I(i 


i 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

taken  prisoner  from  the  Russian  service.     He 
set  out  with  Colonel  Crawfurd,  Captain  Paul 
Menzies  and  five  servants  for  the  Russia  in 
which  he  ended  his  days,  not  without  much 
misgiving.     At  Riga  he  began  engaging  good 
officers   for  the   Tsar's  service.     He  got  two 
old  Scottish  friends,  Alexander   Landells  and 
Walter  Airth  to  join.     This  was  not  so  difficult 
as  it  seemed,  as  the  soldiers  of  the  Swedes, 
miserably  paid,    lived    by   plunder,    and  they 
'  heard  that  the  Moskovites'  pay,  though  not 
great,  was  duly  payed,  and  that  officers  were 
soone  advanced  to  high  charges ;  that  many  of 
our  countreymen  of  great  quality  were  there, 
and  some  gone  thither  lately.'     At  Plesko,  or 
Opsko,  and  there  '  one  William  Hay,  who  was 
lately  come  from   Scotland,   came   to  us  and 
made  one  of  our  company  to  Mosco,'  a  John 
Hamilton  also  joined  them.     On  September  2 
he  enters  in  his  journal :  '  Wee  came  to  Mosko 
and  hired  a  lodging  in  the  Slabod  or  village 

Muscow  annc  1674.'  His  elder  brother,  Thomas  Crawfurd,  wM 
a  Colonel  in  the  '  Muscovite  service,  and  married  a  daughter  ot 
Colonel  Alexander  Crawfurd,  but  died  anno  1685,  without 
surviving  issue.'— Douglas's  Baronage  of  Scotland,  p.  430- 

5° 


fer^- 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

where  the  strangers  live,'  and  three  days  later 
they  'were  admitted  to  kiss  his  Tzaarsky 
Majestie's  hand  at  Columinske,*  a  countrey 
house  of  the  Tzaars,  seven  wersts  from 
Mosko.  .  .  .  The  Tzaar  was  pleased  to  thank 
me  for  haveing  been  kind  to  his  subjects  who 
were  prisoners  in  Polland ;  and  it  was  told  me 
that  I  should  have  his  Majestie's  Grace  or 
favour,  wherein  I  might  rely.*  The  father  of 
the  Tsar's  first  wife  *Elia  (Ilia)  Danillovitz 
Miloslavsky,'  had  *  the  command  of  the  Stranger 
Office,'  saw  the  strangers  drill,  and  Gordon 
'handled  the  pike  and  musket,  with  all  their 
postures,  to  his  great  satisfaction.'  Having 
once  got  into  Russia,  Gordon  and  his  Scottish 
friends  found  that  they  had  to  make  the  best 
of  a  bad  bargain,  as  they  began  to  fear  it  was. 
The  copper  coin  was  adulterated.  Nor  was 
Gordon  pleased  with  the  attitude  of  the  Rus- 
sians towards  their  foreign  legion.  *  Strangers ' 
he  perceived  *  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  company 
of  hirelings,  and,  at  the  best  (as  they  say  of 

*  Kolomenskye  ;  about  ten  versts  from  Moscow,  on  the  River 
Moskva. 

SI 


MJll     g: 


i 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

woman)  but   necessaria  mala]    no   honours  or 
degrees  of  preferment  to  be  expected  here  but 
military,  and  that  with  a  limited  command,  ... 
no    marrying    with    natives,    strangers    being 
looked  upon  by  the  best  sort  as  scarcely  Chris- 
tians, and  by  the  plebeyans  as  meer  pagans, .  .  . 
and  the  worst  of  all '  (here  speaks  the  Scot) 
*the  pay  small'     He  tried  to  get  leave,  but 
exile   to  Siberia  was  hinted  at,  so  rather  re- 
luctandy  he  remained  and  was  given  a  regiment 
which  he  officered  with  his  countrymen ;  those 
already  named,  besides  William  Guild,  George 
Keith,  Andrew  Burnet,  Andrew   Calderwood, 
Robert  Stuart,  *  and  others,'  about  thirty  in  all, 
mostly   collected   in    Riga.     Disgusted  at   the 
suspicion  of  the  Russians,  Gordon  tried  to  join 
the   embassy  of  Feodor   Michaelovitch    Milo- 
tawski  to  Persia,  but  this  was  not  permitted, 
though  his  friend.  Captain  Paul  Menzies,  ob- 
tained the  post  by  a  gift  of  a  hundred  ducats  to 
the  Boyar  and  a  saddle  and  bridle  worth  twenty 
ducats  to  his  steward,  and  Gordon  was  given 
the  rank  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  in   1662,  and 

resolved  to  marry. 

5* 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

In  1 66 1  he  had  been  at  two  weddings  in  the 
Sloboda  of  the  Strangers,  both  mixed  Scottish 
and  German,  one  when  Ruitmaster  Ryter  mar- 
ried the  widow  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Thomas 
Menzies,  the  other  when  'Captaine  Lidert 
Lome  marryed  to  Bannerman ' ;  at  both  of 
these  he  *  was  merry  and  gott  my  first  acquaint- 
ance of  the  females'  of  this  colony  of  exiles. 
He  decided  to  marry  a  Catholic  (marriage  with 
a  Russian  was  forbidden  unless  both  were  of 
the  Orthodox  Church),  and  his  choice  fell  on 
the  daughter  of  Colonel  Philip  Albrecht  von 
Bockhoven  (then  a  prisoner  of  the  Poles),  aged 
thirteen,  whose  mother  was  from  Wales,  of 
the  family  of  Vaughan.  They  got  engaged, 
were  present  at  the  marriage  of  two  Scots, 
Lieutenant  -  Colonel  Winram  and  Juliana 
Keith ;  and  were  themselves  wedded  early  in 
1665. 

The  Earl  of  Carlisle  as  British  ambassador 
from  the  restored  King  Charles  IL  visited 
Russia  in  1664.  Gordon  next  year  (hearing 
of  the  death  of  his  eldest  brother)  petitioned 
again  to  go  to  Scotland.     The  Tsar  refused, 

53 


t 


li 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

but  the  following  summer  resolved  to  dis- 
patch him  on  a  mission  to  the  King  of 
England,  as  no  Russian  boyar  at  the  time, 
'fearing  such  cold  entertainment  as  Diascow 
(Vassili  Jakolevitch  Dashkofif)  had  got,'  was 
willing  to  go.  On  his  way  to  England  another 
Scot,  one  Captain  Peter  Rae,  was  of  his  suite, 
and  at  Pskoff  he  met  another  'M^Naughton/ 
Once  in  England  he  had  much  communication 
with  his  confrlres,  Generals  Dalyell  and  Drum- 
mond,  who  had  also  been  in  the  Muscovite 
service,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  an  interview 
with  King  Charles  II..  for— utilitarian  in  alle- 
giance as  he  was  abroad — Gordon  was  a 
devoted  adherent  of  the  Stuarts  at  home.  The 
King  had  a  servant,  one  Caspar  Kalthoff,  or 
Calthoffe,  detained  in  Russia  with  the  *  hospi- 
tality* of  the  Russians  of  those  times,  whose 
release  he  wished  and  which  he  asked  Gordon 
to  obtain.  He  bore  a  letter  from  the  King  to 
the  Tsar  (wishing  for  the  restoration  of  the 
*  Privilydges '  of  the  English  merchants)  when 
he  returned  to  Russia  in  1667.  We  notice  in- 
cidentally that  amongst  his  correspondents  were 

54 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


*  Captain  Gordon  and  Mr.  Clayhills  in  Riga.'* 
When  he  returned  he  found  himself  in  disgrace 
with  the  Tsar,  perhaps  on  account  of  the  King's 
letter,  and  was  ordered  to  confine  himself  to 
the  Sloboda ;  but  he  did  not  lose  his  regiment, 
and  in  1670  was  sent  into  the  Ukraine  to 
subdue  it,  and  he  remained  there  seven  long 
years,  conquering  the  province.  In  1677  he 
was  summoned,  to  'vindicate'  his  conduct,  to 
Moscow,  and  then  triumphantly  returned  to  the 
Ukraine;  and  his  defence  of  Tschigirin  from 
the  Turks,  which  ended  in  the  Moslems  being 
driven  out  of  the  province,  gave  him  a  high 
military  reputation.  He  still  wished  to  quit 
Russia,  but  the  Tsar  Feodor  (who  had  suc- 
ceeded Aleksei  Michaelovitch  in  1676)  was  quite 
as  resolute  as  his  father  not  to  *  let  the  children 
of  Israel  go,'  and  in  spite  of  a  letter  from 
Charles  II.  he  was  retained. 


1 


I 


^This  Scottish  family  has  become  Russified.  Originally 
cadets  of  Clayhills  of  Invergowrie,  near  Dundee,  they  have 
produced  many  distinguished  Russian  officials,  including 
General  Nicholas  Kleigels,  Governor-General  of  Volhynia  and 
Podolia  in  1904,  afterwards  Prefect  of  Police  of  St  Peters- 
burg. 

55 


•««iM» 


w^rnif^'m, 


I  'i 


I 


I  * 


II 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

He  returned  to  Tschigirin,  and  had  again  to 
defend  it  against  an  attack  of  the  Grand  Vizier 
Kara  Mustapha.  He  took  the  command,  when 
the  Governor  was  killed  by  a  bomb,  and  the 
campaign  ended  in  the  slaughter  of  four 
thousand  Turks,  a  complete  victory,  and  the 
position  of  Major-General. 

In  1679  he  was  appointed  to  the  Chief 
Command  at  Kiev,  and  in  1683  was  made 
Lieutenant-General,  and  in  that  year  (the  Tsar 
Feodor  had  died  in  1683,  succeeded  by  his  two 
brothers  Ivan  and  Peter,  with  the  Tsarevna 
Sophia  as  Regent),  hungering  after  Moscow,  he 
travelled  thither.  Well  received  by  Sophia,  he 
was  again  sent  back  to  Kiev,  and  fortified  it 
against  a  Turkish  invasion.  He  there  met  the 
Genevan  adventurer,  Francis  Lefort,  the  friend 
of  Peter  the  Great,  who  became  connected  with 
him  by  marriage,  and  their  friendship  endured 

for  life. 

At  the  end  of  the  year  he  lost  a  son,  George 
Stephen  Gordon,  and  wrote  a  Latin  epitaph  on 
him  ;  he  also  commemorated  another  Scot  (how 
many   were   there   in   Russia?),   one    Andrew 

56 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

Arbuthnot,    who    died    aged     seventy -eight, 

thus: 

'Scotia  me  genuit,  tenuitque  Polonia  quondam, 
Russia  nunc  requiem  praebet.     Amice  vale.' 


57 


I 


CHAPTER  V. 

GORDON'S  HOPES  FROM  A  CATHOLIC  KING  IN 
ENGLAND.  GIVEN  PERMISSION  TO  RETURN, 
LEAVING  HIS  WIFE  AND  FAMILY  AS  HOST- 
AGES.  HIS  REPORT  TO  JAMES  II.  AND  VII. 
HIS  RETURN  TO  RUSSIA,  AND  HIS  SERVICE 
THERE. 


rrssssssET 


■  I 

i  j 


II 


V. 


Patrick  Gordon  heard  in  1685  of  the  death  of 

King  Charles  II.,  and,  thrilled  by  the  advent 

of  a  Catholic  King  to  the  throne  of  England, 

again  petitioned  to  return  there.     His  petition 

was  addressed   to  Prince  Vassili  Vassilievitch 

Galitzin,  the  favourite  of  the  Tsarevna  Sophia, 

and  at  last  he  was  summoned  to  Moscow.     He 

was  given  permission  to  go,  but  only  when  his 

wife  and  children  were  left  as  hostages  for  his 

return.     On  January  26,  1686,  he  writes,  'was 

at  their  Majesties*  hands,  receiving  a  Charke 

{cAarka  =  cup)  of  brandy  out  of  the  youngest 

(the  Tsar  Peter)  his  hand,  with  a  command 

from  him  to  returne  speedily.     January  27,  I 

was  at  the  Princesse  her  hand.  .  .  .     J  any.  28, 

I  went  to  Czarn  Crash  and  tooke  my  leave  of 

61 


■MMMi 


n 


SCOTTISH   INFLUENCES 

the  Boyar,^  who  desired  me  to  returne  speedily 
and  not  to  drowne  him  my  cautioner.'  Truly 
foreigners  in  the  service  of  Russia  had  uneasy 
heads !  He  visited  England,  was  received  and 
well  received  by  King  James  II.  and  Queen 
Marie,  and  then  revisited  Scotland,  his  native 
land.  Armed  with  letters  from  his  King  and 
the  Duke  of  Gordon  (head  of  his  family),  beg- 
ging the  Tsars  and  Prince  Galitzin  to  give  him 
his  congi  and  let  him  enjoy  his  estates  in  Scot- 
land, to  which  he  had  now  succeeded,  he  returned 
to  Russia  at  the  end  of  the  year.  He  again 
found  himself  in  slight  disgrace,  but  in  January 
of  next  year  he  was  told  he  was  to  serve  against 
the  Tartars  of  the  Crimea,  and  he  received  the 
rank  of  General  in  September,  1687.  In  1688 
he  had  trouble  on  account  of  the  Patriarch  pro- 
phesying that  the  Muscovites  could  not  thrive 
while  a  heretic  commanded  their  best  soldiers. 
He  began,  however,  to  grow  in  favour  with  the 
Boyars,  and  especially  with  the  young  Tsar 
Peter. 

*  Prince  Vassili  Vassilievitch  Galitzin,  the  married  favourite 
of  the  Regent,  the  Tsarevna  Sophia. 

62 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

In  May,  1689,  after  an  abortive  expedition 
against  the  Crimean  Tartars,  the  Tsar   Peter 
accorded   him   the   special  privilege   of  being 
addressed   in   the   third    person,   and    also   as 
Patrick  Ivanovitch,  like  a  genuine  Russian.    On 
August  6  he  notes  there  were  *  rumours  unsafe 
to  be  uttered,*  and  next  day   the  Tsar   Peter 
fled  for  safety  to  Troitza.     Gordon  ^  threw  in 
his  lot  with  him,  though  not  till  after  he  had 
consulted  Prince  Galitzin.     He  joined  the  Tsar 
at  the  Troitskaya  Lavra,  60  versts  from  Moscow, 
with  his  troops,  and  was  admitted  as  a  friend. 
They   returned  to   Moscow  triumphantly,   the 
Tsarevna  Sophia  was  sent  to  a  convent,  and 
much   blood   spilt,  and  (the  Tsar  Ivan   being 
passive)  the  Tsar  Peter  became  sole  ruler. 

Gordon  was  now  frequently  at  Court  with 
the  young  Tsar  (we  must  note  that  when  his 
mother-in-law  died  he  could  not  appear  before 
the  Tsar  for  three  days,  as  he  had  been  at  a 
funeral!)  and  frequently  was  honoured  with 
gifts,   and   was,   owing   to   his    knowledge    of 

*  Gordon  drew  up  the  note  of  his  services  in  Russia,  which 
ended  with  his  going  to  the  monastery  of  the  Troitza.    Diary^ 


p.  172. 


63 


I' 


11. 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

ypyrotechnics,  director  of  fireworks  (a  five-pound 
^  rocket  went  wrong  on  February  24th  at  the  cele- 
bration in  honour  of  the  birth  of  the  Tsarevitch 
Aleksei  Petrovitch  and  *  carried  off  the  head  of 
a  Boyar').  He  appears  at  this  time  to  have 
^received  as  pay  about  five  hundred  and  forty- 
two  roubles  a  year.  The  dinners  with  the  Tsar 
(especially  one  at  Troitza)  were  not  beneficial 
to  Gordon's  health,^  and  he  notes  the  results 
carefully  in  his  diary !  Though  he  approved  of 
the  Revolution  in  Russia,  he  was  far  from 
approving  of  that  in  Britain  which  had  sub- 
stituted the  Protestant  William  III.  for  his  co- 
religionist, and  he  records  with  glee  that  a  letter 
sent  by  the  former  to  the  Tsar's  Court  was  by 
his  influence  not  received  at  first.  On  6th 
March,  1691,  the  Tsar  made  Gordon  a  gift  of 
silver  plate  and  confiscated  property  worth  in 
all  a  thousand  roubles. 

^  In  spite  of  this,  Gordon  of  Auchintoul  writes  that  General 
Gordon  *  was  a  sober  man,  in  a  country  where  drinking  is  so 
much  in  fashion  and  though  he  used  to  be  much  in  the  Czar's 
company,  his  Majesty  knowing  his  inclinations,  would  never 
allow  him  to  be  urged.  He  was  ever  mindful  of  his  business, 
and  did  great  service  to  the  Russian  n2ition.'—//ts(Ofy  of  Peter 
the  Greats  p.  128. 

64 


v/ 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

In    1693,   the   Tsar    showered    favours    on 
Gordon  after  his  first  visit  to  Archangel,  and 
after  the   Tsaritza-dowager*s   death,   was  sup- 
ported by  Gordon,  who  acted  as  Rear-Admiral 
of  the  Fleet,  on  his  second  visit  to  Archangel  \i^^\\ 
next  year.     In  1695  there  was  an  attack  planned 
on  Azof,  one   fort   of  which  was  stormed  by 
Colonel  James  Gordon,  but  it  was  not  till  1696 
that  it  was  finally  taken  by  the  Russians.     The 
only  officer  of  distinction  the  Russians  lost  was 
Colonel  Stevenson,  'a  Scots  gentleman' who  was 
'shot  in  the  mouth  being  a  little  too  curious, 
and  raising  himself  too  high  on  the  top  of  the 
loose  earth  to  observe  the  enemy, 'whom  the  Tsar 
buried  *with  all  the  honours  of  war.*     On  the 
return  of  the  triumphant  troops  to  Moscow  in 
October,  Gordon  received  a  medal  worth  six 
ducats,  a  gold  cup,  a  sable  robe  and  an  estate 
with  ninety  souls.     When  the  reforming  Tsar 
set  out  on  his  travels  he  continued  to  correspond 
with  Gordon  from  London,  and  Gordon  replied 
telling  him  of  the  unrest  among  the  Streltzi;  and 
when  the  storm  of  mutiny  broke  out  among  the 
regiments  Gordon  surrounded  them  and  fired 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

on  the  mutineers.  'During  this  affair,  which 
lasted  about  an  hour,  a  few  of  our  men  were 
wounded.  The  rebels  had  twenty-two  killed 
on  the  spot,  and  about  forty  wounded,  mostly 
mortally.*  The  guilty  Streltzi  were  captured, 
some  beheaded  at  once  and  the  rest  kept  for 
the  punishment  by  the  Tsar  when  he  should 
return.  This  was  bloody  in  the  extreme,  but 
Gordon  mentions  the  executions  without  com- 
ment, and  immediately  after  enters  on  July  6, 
1698  :  *This  day,  after  devotion,  I,  with  many 
more,  were  confirmed  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Anura  (Ancyra),  called  Petrus  Paulus  de  St. 
Joseph,  of  the  Carmelite  Order ;  I  takeing  the 
y  name  of  Leopoldus  and  my  son  Theodorus  that 
of  Joseph.'  On  September  2  the  Tsar,  who 
had  returned,  received  him  'very  graciously, 
and  thanked  him  in  the  heartiest  way  for  his 
faithful  services,  and  the  great  things  he  had 
done '  in  the  intervals  of  the  executions.  On 
September  28th  he  wrote  :  '  In  the  afternoon  I 
went  to  Preobraschensk,  but  in  vain  :  everybody 
about  the  Court  was  engaged  in  arresting  more 

of  the  adherents  of  the  Princess  Sophia,  and 

66 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

putting    the    Zarina    in    the    Convent.*     But 
Gordon   was   not  long  to  enjoy  the  Imperial 
favour.     He  was  able   to  see  *the  crocodile, 
swordfish,    and    other    curiosities,    which    his 
Majesty  had  brought  from  England  and  Hol- 
land *  on  September  30th,  but  in  December  of 
1698  he  entered  :  '  This  year  I  have  felt  a  sensi- 
ble  decrease  of  health  and  strength.     Yet  Thy 
will  be  done.  Gracious  God  ! '     He  lingered  for 
another  year,  visited  by  the  Tsar,  who  stood 
weeping  by  his  bedside,  at  his  deathbed    The 
Tsar  ordered  his  funeral  procession,  which  was 
military.     Two  Generals  supported  the  widow, 
and  twenty  Boyarinas  walked  in  her  train.     He 
was  buried  before  the  high  altar  in  the  first 
stone  church  the  Roman  Catholics  were  allowed 
to  build  in  Moscow,  which  he  had  assisted  in 
building,  and  the  inscription  on  his  tomb  read : 

SACRAE  TZAREAE  MAJESTATIS  MILITIAE  GENERALIS 

PATRICIUS  LEOPOLDUS  GORDON 

NATUS  ANNO  DOMINI  1635  DIE  31  MARTII 

DENATUS  ANNO  DOMINI  1699  DIE  29  NOVEMBRIS 

REQUIESCAT  IN  PACE. 

General  Gordon  was  twice  married:  first,  as 

we  have  seen,  to  Katherine  von  Bockhoven, 

67 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 


11 


who  died  before  1682  ;  and,  secondly,  before 
1 686,  to  Elizabeth  Barnoe,  daughter  of  Colonel 
Roonaer,  whose  sister  married  another  *  Scot  in 
Russia,'  Captain  Harry  Gordon.  He  came  to 
Moscow  in  1691,  and  is  last  heard  of  at  Arch- 
angel in  1698.  General  Patrick  Gordon  had 
three  sons  and  two  daughters.  The  eldest  son 
succeeded  to  Auchleuchries  in  Scotland  and 
settled  there,  though  he  visited  his  father  in 
Moscow  in  1698.  James,  the  second,  rose  to  be 
a  Lieutenant-Colonel  under  the  Tsar.  He  was 
taken  prisoner  by  the  Swedes  in  1 700,  and  only 
escaped  two  years  later  by  flight.  The  third 
son,  Theodore  Ignatius  (by  his  second  wife), 
entered  his  father's  Butirski  Regiment  as  an 
ensign.  He  and  James  disposed  of  the  estates 
•Ivanowska'  and  *Krasna,'^  which  had  been 
bestowed  on  their  father  by  the  Tsar  Peter 
from  the  escheated  lands  of  Prince  Galitzin. 
The  two  daughters  were  Katherine,  born  in 
1665,  married  first  Colonel  Strasburg,^  a 
German  who   served   in   the    Russian   Army, 

'  Ivanovskoye  and  Krasnoye. 

*  Her  daughter  by  this  marriage,  Elizabeth,  married  Patrick, 
son  of  Patrick  Smith  of  Braco. 

68 


IN  RUSSIAN   HISTORY 

and  fell  a  victim  in  1692  (by  an  explosion)  to 
Peter  the  Great's  love  for  fireworks.  In  1700 
she  remarried  Alexander  Gordon  of  Auchintoul 
(of  whom  we  shall  hear  later),  and  left  Russia 
with  him  in  171 1.  She  died  in  Scotland  in 
1739.  The  second  daughter,  Marie,  married  a 
Scot,  Major  Daniel  Crawford  (who  also  died  in 
1692,  in  the  Tsar's  service),  and  the  Tsar  was 
present  at  the  wedding.  She  remarried  Colonel 
Carl  Snivius,  probably  a  German  of  the  Slo- 
boda. 

The  mantle  of  Gordon  fell,  in  a  measure,  on 
his  (future)  son-in-law,  Alexander  Gordon  of 
Auchintoul,^  called  in  Russia  Aleksei  Alexan- 
drovitch.  Originally  in  the  French  Army,  he 
came  to  Moscow  in  1696,  and  was  made  Major 
in  Gordon's  regiment.  He  was  at  the  capture 
of  Azof,  and  became  a  Major-General  of  the 
Russian  service.  Returning  to  Scotland,  he 
was  'out'  in  the  '15,  but  escaped  attainder  as  a 
Jacobite  by  a  mistake  in  the  Act.     He  lived 

until  1 751;  having  remarried  in  1740  Margaret, 

^For  a  full  account  of  his  services,  see  J.   M.   Bullough's 
excellent  House  of  Gordon^  pp.  412-5  (New  Spalding  Club). 

69 


■■  \ 


\ 


f<i 


I' 


w. 


I 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Moncrieffe  of  that  ilk, 
and  wrote  an  excellent  History  of  Peter  the 
Great,  which  must  be  read  by  all  who  want  to 
know  the  Russia  of  his  time.  We  shall  read  of 
his  escape  from  Russia  in  another  chapter. 

Another  Gordon,  a  kinsman  of  the  General, 
Thomas  Gordon,  became  Governor  of  Kron- 
stadt,  and  will  be  mentioned  later. 

General  Gordon's  diary  gives  notices  of  many 
other  Scots  in  the  Russian  services.  *  Major 
Generall  Paull  Menezes,  Collonell  Alexander 
Leviston  and  Major  Hary  Gordon '  (whom  we 
have  mentioned),  witnessed  a  deed  of  his  in 
1692. 


I 


CHAPTER  VI. 


COLLABORATORS  OF  PETER  THE   GREAT. 


I 


70 


% 


I 


VI. 


Among    the    'helpers'    or    'collaborators'    of 
Peter  the  Great,  three  Scots,  besides  General 
Patrick     Gordon,    stand    out    pre-eminently : 
George     Ogilvy,    who     planned     his    battles, 
though  Sheremetiefif  won  them ;  James  Bruce, 
the  astronomer  ;  and  the  physician,  Dr.  Erskine. 
Ogilvy  did  not  take  root  in  Russia.    His  career 
was  this.     He  was  a  son  of  George  Baron 
Ogilvy,  Governor  of  Spielberg  in  Moravia  (a 
son  of  Patrick  Ogilvy  of  Muirtoun  and  grandson 
of  James,  Lord  Ogilvy  of  Airlie),  and  in  his 
early  youth  went  into  the  Emperor's  service, 
becoming  very  speedily  Gentleman  of  the  Bed- 
chamber   and    a   Major-General.      The   Tsar 
visited  Vienna  in  1698,1  and  was  so  much  struck 

»*Des  Heil.  Rom.  Reich.  Genealogisch-Historischen ' ;  Adds 
Lexiciy  11  vol  (Leipzig,  1747). 

*  73 


*  "- 1 


i 


1 

I 


It 


fi 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

by  him  that  (through  the  influence  of  the  un- 
fortunate Livonian  Count  Patkul)  he  took  him 
into  his  service,  and  they  went  back  to  Moscow 
together.  After  General  Lefort's  death  Ogiivy 
was  made  Field-Marshal.  *  His  first  care  was 
to  arrange  Military  matters  according  to  German 
style,  and  in  this  he  succeeded  very  well,'  but 
he  was  wise  enough  to  see  and  to  say  that  the 
Russians  were  but  in  their  infancy,  and  ought 
to  be  brought  into  discipline  by  degrees.  He 
distinguished  himself  at  the  taking  of  Narva, 
and  concluded  the  Peace  of  Ivanogorod,  when 
the  King  of  Poland  decorated  him  with  the 
White  Eagle.  With  the  Tsar's  permission  he 
then  took  service  with  the  King  of  Poland,  and 
died  in  October,  1710,  aged  sixty- two,  at 
Danzig.  He  bought  for  120,000  florins  the 
feudal  estate  of  Sauershau,  and  (by  his  wife, 
Marie-Anastasia,  daughter  of  Johann  Georg 
Yuckmantel  de  Briimath)  left  a  family  to 
succeed  him  in  the  riches  he  had  acquired  in 
Russia.^ 

*A  pedigree  of  his  descendants  is  given  in  The  ScotHsh 
Antiquary, 

74 


\ 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

Major-General  James  Daniel  (Yakov  Vile- 
movitch,  1 670- 1 735)  Bruce  and  his  brother, 
Robert  (Roman  Vilemovitch,  1668- 17 20),  were 
sons  of  an  immigrant  to  Russia,  Colonel 
William  Bruce,^  who  claimed  to  belong  to 
the  old  house  of  Bruce  of  Airth.*  They 
prospered  exceedingly  in  the  land  of  their 
adoption.  We  are  told  of  James  Bruce  that 
he  'passed  at  Court  for  a  chemist  and 
astronomer  of  genius,  and  was  held  in  the  City 
for  a  Sorcerer/  He  certainly  was  one  of  the 
greatest  of  the  Tsar  Peter's  'helpers.*  There 
was  nothing  he  had  not  a  finger  in.  He  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  artillery  and  was  not 
unsuspected  of  much  peculation.  His  career 
was  subject  to  sudden  vicissitudes.  He  was  at 
one  time  disgraced  in  favour  of  Prince  Ivan 
Troubetskoi  for  Mack  of  expedition,*  and  at 
another  time  for  abuses  in  his  office,  though  he 
had  the  reputation  of  never  accepting  bribes. 

^A  Short  Outline  of  the  History  of  Russia,  by  B.  I.  L. 
(Edinburgh  :  privately  printed,  1900),  p.  119.  A  book  too  little 
known.  William  Bruce  is  said  to  have  arrived  in  Russia  about 
165a    He  died  in  1680  at  PskofE 

•  See  chapter  vii. 

75 


!j| 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

The  Tsar  always  ended  by  forgiving  him.  He 
had  the  great  power  of  work,  which  was  after 
the  great  Tsar's  heart,  and  his  success  at  the 
Peace  of  Nystadt,  which  gave  him  the  title  of 
Count,  gave  the  Baltic  Provinces  to  Russia, 
and  left  Sweden  with  no  transmaritime  posses- 
sions. He  also  induced  Peter  to  correspond 
with  Leibnitz,  translated  many  foreign  books 
for  his  master,  and  directed  the  Tsar*s  schools 
of  Navigation,  Artillery  and  Military  Engin- 
eering. It  was  he  who  was  made  to  collect 
codes  of  laws  of  other  nations  for  the  Tsar,  and 
he  was  made  a  Senator  in  1 718.  He  later 
retired  to  his  estate  of  Glinki,  forty-two  versts 
from  Moscow,  and  died  without  issue,  19th 
April,  1735.  Waliszewski^  writes:  'A  whole 
legend  has  grown  up  round  the  light  which 
streamed,  on  long  winter  nights,  from  the 
windows  of  his  laboratory  in  the  Souharef 
Tower.*    His  astronomical  discoveries  bordered 

» Peter  the  Great,  p.  226.  A  bust  (lettered  additionally  Daniel 
Bruce)  which  has  disappeared  gives  his  birth  as  1669.  I  am 
indebted  for  its  photograph  to  my  friend,  Mr.  Clement  J. 
Chamock,  of  Moscow. 

*  Souchareva  bashnya, 

76 


1 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

closely  on  Astrology,  and  his  celebrated  Calen- 
dar, published  in  171 1,  is  all  moonshine.'^ 
Brusovski  Street  in  Moscow,  where  his  house 
formerly  stood,  is  named  after  him.  His 
Countship  passed  on  to  his  nephew,  Alexander 
Romanovitch,  the  son  of  his  brother,  Robert 
(Roman),  who  was  born  in  1705.  He  took 
part  in  the  war  with  the  Turks,  and  was  a 
Major-General  by  1739.  He  retired,  owing  to 
ill-health,  in  1751,  and  died  the  same  year. 
He  married  twice  into  the  family  of  Dolgo- 
rouki.  His  first  wife  was  Princess  Anastasia 
Michaelovna  Dolgoroukaya ;  secondly,  he  mar- 
ried a  lady  who  had  almost  been  Tsaritza  of 
Russia,  Princess  Yekaterina  Aleksievna  Dolgo- 
roukaya, the  bereavedyfa«^/<^  of  the  young  Tsar, 
Peter  II.,  who  was  described  as  'beautiful,  but 
arrogant'  On  the  death  of  \itx  fianci  she  was 
(by  Anna  Ivanovna)  banished  and  confined  in 
different  monasteries,  but  when  the  Empress 
Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne  she  was  recalled 
in   1745.     It  was  noticed  that  her  hand   had 

*  Field-Marshal  Bruce  lies  buried  under  the  Refectory  of  the 
Simonoff  Monastery  in  Moscow.— r/4^  Story  of  Moscow,  by 
Writ  Gerrare,  p.  262. 

77 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

been  kissed  by  the  JEmpress  when  she  was 
declared  the  T^x'^  fiancie.  We  are  told  that, 
*  Arrogant  till  the  very  last,  on  her  death-bed 
she  ordered  all  her  dresses  to  be  burned  so  that 
none  might  wear  them  after  her/^  Her  stepson 
was  one  of  the  *  Counts  Bruce '  of  the  reign  of 
Catherine  II. 

Dr.   Robert   Erskine,  the  sixth  son  of  Sir 
Charles  Erskine  of  Alva,  Baronet,  a  Scottish 
physician  who  had  studied  in  Paris,  entered  the 
service  of  Peter  the  Great  and  became  the  first 
of  the  many  Scottish  physicians  connected  with 
the  Russian  Court.     Perhaps  he  originally  took 
service   with    Prince    Menschikoff,   the   Tsar's 
favourite,  but  anyway  he  entered   the  Tsar's 
service  about  1704.     He  was  appointed  Archi- 
ator  or   chief  of   the  Aptekarski  Prikaz,   or 
Ministry  of  Medical  Affairs,  which  was  removed 
In  1 712  from  Moscow  to  the  new  St.  Peters- 
burg, when  the  name  was  changed  to  that  of 
Medical    Chancellery,   and    he    was    used    in 
diplomatic   missions  also  with   Tartar  Khans. 
We  are  told  he  had  the  salary  of  1 500  ducats 

1  Short  Outline  of  the  History  of  Russia,  ii.  pp.  152-3. 

78 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

(promptly  paid  too,  unlike  the  military  allow- 
ances), and  that  he  *put  the  great  Imperial 
Dispensary  in  the  excellent  order  it  is  in  . . . 
He  furnishes  the  armies  and  fleets,  and  the 
whole  Empire,  with  drugs,  and  makes  a  great 
addition  to  the  Tsar's  revenue/^ 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how  a  Scottish  friend, 
George  Mackenzie,  describes  in  a  letter  the 
newly-born  St.  Petersburg  in  1714.  *Our 
infant  City  here  is  of  that  extent,  that,  though 
far  from  being  at  the  fag  end  of  it,  yet  have 
my  house  at  above  2  English  miles  distance 
from  that  of  the  Dr.'s,  so  that  my  letter 
found  him  allready  gone  abroad  with  the  Czar, 
though  it  was  with  him  this  morning  before 
7  o'clock.' 

Erskine  rose  high  in  the  opinion  of  his 
Imperial  Patron,  travelled  with  him  and 
Catherine  in  17 16  through  Denmark,  Germany 
and  Holland.  He  was  given  the  title  of 
Councillor  of  State.  He  was  present  at  the 
marriage  of  the  Tsar's  niece,  the  Tsarevna 
Yekaterina  Ivanovna  (mother  of  the  unlucky 

^History  of  PeUr  the  Great,  I755>  »•  PP-  170-171- 

79 


i 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

Regent,  Anna  Leopoldovna),  to  the  Duke  of 
Mecklenburg- Schwerin,  at  Danzig  on  19th 
April,  1 7 16.  At  Copenhagen  he  was  ap- 
proached by  the  Jacobites  (his  brother  was  one 
of  those  attainted  in  171 5),  and  Sir  Henry 
Stirling  of  Ardoch  (son-in-law  of  Admiral 
Thomas  Gordon),  came  to  meet  him  there,  no 
doubt  as  a  Jacobite  agent,  and  he  was  very 
likely  in  the  Gortz  plot ;  anyhow,  as  Gordon  of 
Auchintoul  wrote  :  *  The  Doctor  was  supposed 
in  the  latter  years  of  his  life  to  have  kept  a 
correspondence  with  the  Chevalier  de  St. 
George^s  agents ;  whatever  be  of  that,  he  was 
an  agreeable,  open-hearted,  fine  genrieman.' 
In  spite,  or  because  of  this  (for  the  Tsar  did 
not  love  George  I.),  his  influence  continued 
unabated.  He  went  with  him  on  the  celebrated 
visit  to  Paris  in  171 7.  Next  year  he  fell  ill 
and  went  for  baths  at  Koucheserski,  near  Lake 
Onega,  and  died  at  the  Tsar  s  house  there  in 
December,  17 18.  He  was  only  forty-one. 
The  Tsar  had  his  body  transported  to  the 
capital,  and  had  it  buried  in  the  churchyard  of 

the  newly-erected  Alexander  Nevski  Monastery 

80 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

with  the  highest  pomp.  The  funeral  took  place 
on  4th  January,  1719,  the  Tsar  carrying  a 
lighted  torch,  with  two  hundred  other  mourners.* 
Always  well  treated  by  the  Tsar  and  hand- 
somely paid,  he  returned  the  Imperial  kindness 
in  his  will,  dated  in  17 18.  He  left  all  his 
money  in  England  to  his  mother,  that  in  Russia 
to  necessitous  families.  His  library  was  to  be 
sold  for  the  benefit  of  his  heirs.  If  the  Tsar 
liked  he  could  purchase  his  curiosities,  medals 
and  surgical  instruments,  the  price  being  given 
to  orphanages,  hospitals,  and  almshouses  in 
Scotland.  Two  legacies  he  made  to  the  Im- 
perial family,  and  both  are  characteristic  of  the 
time  and  country.  He  leaves  *  To  the  Most 
Gracious  Lady  the  Tsaritsa  Ekaterina  Alek- 
sievna  such  of  my  linen  as  has  not  been  used, 
and  the  lace  which  is  not  torn,  and  all  my 
porcelain  ware,'  and  *  The  Country  seat  Gastel 
(now  called  Gostilitzi)  I  transfer  to  the  most 
gracious  pleasure  of  His  Imperial  Majesty,  in 
case  he  should  wish  to  give  it  to  her  Highness 

*  Erskine  Papers  ;  Miscellany  of  the  Scottish  History  Society^ 
vol.  ii.  pp.  373-430- 

L  81 


I 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 


the  eldest  Princess/^  We  read,  also,  among 
his  papers  a  letter  in  171 3  desiring  a  recom- 
mendation to  him  of  *  Thomas  Garvine,  who  is 
now  a  surgeon  in  the  Hospital  of  Petersburg,' 
and  who  was  sent  later  by  Peter  the  Great  to 
Peking  at  the  request  of  the  Chinese  Emperor, 
Kang  Hi,  on  one  of  those  Oriental  missions 
which  owed  so  much  to  Scottish  leaders. 

Such  was  the  career  of  the  first,  but  by  no 
means  the  last,^  Scottish  Court  Physician  in 
Russia. 

John  Bell  of  Antermony,  whose  name  is  asso- 
ciated with  diplomatic  relations  between  Russia 
and  China,  went  to  Russia  in  17 14,  and  was 
received  by  Dr.  Erskine  *in  a  very  friendly 
manner.'  Desiring  to  travel,  Dr.  Erskine  re- 
commended him,  as  having  some  knowledge  of 
surgery,  to  the  College  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  St. 
Petersburg,  and  so  he  entered  the  Tsar's  service. 

^  Anna  Petrovna,  born  9th  March,  1708  ;  died  15th  May,  1728  ; 
married,  1725,  Charles,  Duke  of  Holstein-Gottorp  and  was 
mother  of  Peter  III. 

^Dr.  Grieve  was  later  another  Scottish  doctor  in  St.  Peters- 
burg, also  Dr.  Halliday,  who  died  there  in  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth    century. — New    Statistical  Account   of  Scotland 

{Dumfriesshire)^  p.  156. 

82 


IN   RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

He  first  went  in  the  suite  of  Artemy  Petrovitch 
Valenski  on  the  embassy  from  *his  Czarish' 
Majesty  to  the  Sophy  of  Persia,  which  lasted 
from  17 1 5  to  1 7 18,  and  next  year  set  off  in  the 
train  of  Leoff  Vassilievitch  Ismayloff,  ambas- 
sador from  the  Tsar  to  Kang  Hi,  Emperor  of 
China.  Two  excellent  volumes,  published  by 
subscription  later,  were  the  fruit  of  his  obser- 
vations. His  Chinese  embassy  did  not  reach 
home  until  1721.  It  was  a  great  success,  and 
may  be  studied  in  his  book.^  It  is  sad  to  read 
how  many  prisoners  (one  a  General  Hamilton),* 
taken  in  the  Swedish  wars,  he  met  going  and 
returning  through  Kazan  and  Siberia ;  though 
he  states  that  in  the  case  of  the  latter  they 
*  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  civilizing  of  the 
inhabitants  of  these  distant  regions ;  as  they 
were  the  means  of  introducing   several   useful 

1  Travels  from  St,  Petersburg  in  Russia  to  Diverse  Parts  of 
Asia,  2  vols.    (Glasgow,  1763.)    A  good  life  is  given  in  W. 
Anderson's  Scottish  Nation,  vol.  ii.  pp.  273-275. 

*Hugo  Johan  Hamilton,  Major-General  of  the  Swedish 
cavalry,  was  taken  prisoner  at  the  Dnieper  in  July,  17091  and 
conveyed  to  Moscow  and  Kazan.  He  had  fought  at  Narva, 
Clissow,  Frauenstadt  and  Poltava.  He  was  released,  became 
Field-Marshal,  and  died  in  1748. 

83 


lii 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

arts,  which  were  almost  unknown  before  their 
arrival.*  Bell  again  went  to  Persia,  and  then 
was  on  a  mission,  in  1737,  to  Constantinople. 
He  married,  in  1746,  a  Russian  subject,  Marie 
Peters ;  left  the  Russian  service ;  had  a  career 
as  a  Turkey  merchant ;  and,  finally,  died  at 
Antermony,  aged  89,  on  ist  July,  1780. 

Another  Scot,  a  more  humble  adherent  of 
the  Great  Tsar,  was  one  of  those  500  Scots  and 
English  whom  he  picked  up  during  his  resi- 
dence in  England.  He  was  *  Mr.  Farquharson  ^ 
(an  able  mathematician),  a  Scots  Highlander,' 
whom  he  took  with  him  from  England  to 
Holland  and  Russia,  and  who  taught  Moscow 
youths  arithmetic  in  a  room  in  the  Souchareva 
Bashnya  before  he  was  transported  to  St. 
Petersburg.  Major-General  Chambers  was 
made  a  Knight  of  St.  Andrew  after  the  taking 
of  Narva.  Alexander  Magnus  Anderson, 
Major  of  the  Osterbotten  regiment,  went  over 
from  the  Swedes  to  the  Russians  in  171 2,  but 
was  later  sent  to  Siberia  with  many  other  Scoto- 

*  Most  likely  the  Professor  Farquharson  (wrongly  spelled)  of 
St.  Petersburg  mentioned  in  Dr.  Cook's  book. 

84 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

Swedes,  whose  descendants  have  become 
Russians.  Duncan  Robertson,  son  of  Alex- 
ander Robertson,  12th  Laird  of  Strowan,  was 
*  highly  esteemed  *  by  the  Tsar,  rose  to  the  rank 
of  Colonel,  and  died  in  Sweden  in  17 18,  leaving 
a  daughter  by  his  wife — a  Robertson  of  Inches.* 
Gordons  come  galore.  Count  James  Gordon 
was  wounded  *  in  the  ancle '  at  Notteburg,  near 
Narva.  James  Patrickovitch  Gordon,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  captured  at  Narva,  escaped  and 
rose  to  be  a  Brigadier.  Another  James  Gordon 
we  hear  of  being  taken  prisoner  in  1704  and 
suffering  '  misirabill  bondeg '  with  the  Swedes. 
But  a  far  greater  man  than  any  of  these,  one 
who  made  his  mark  upon  the  country  of  his 
adoption,  was  Admiral  Thomas  Gordon,  whom 
we  have  already  mentioned.  He  had  left  the 
British  Navy  on  account  of  his  Jacobite  pro- 
clivities and  was  found  by  Peter  in  Holland. 
Peter  snapped  him  up,  and  he  entered  the 
Russian  Navy  (another  Scot  was  in  it,  one 
William  Hay,  dismissed  in  1724)  in  1717  as 
Captain-Commander.     In  1719  he  was  Rear- 

*  Douglas's  Baronage  of  Scotland^  p.  409. 

85 


I 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

Admiral.  In  1721  he  commanded  the  squadron 
of  Kronstadt,  consisting  of  six  battleships, 
three  frigates  and  two  smaller  vessels.  He  had 
several  fracas  with  the  Dane,  Rear-Admiral 
Sievers,  but  they  were  *  reconciled'  officially. 
He  knew  no  Russian,  but  talked  to  Prince 
Menschikoff  (and  this  again  shows  the  recep- 
tive powers  of  this  favourite  of  the  Great  Tsar) 
in  fluent  Dutch.  He  captured  Danzig  in 
1724;  was  Commander-in-Chief  at  Kronstadt 
in  1727;  resigned  and  was  re-appointed  in 
1733,  and  held  the  appointment  until  his  death. 
Kronstadt  owes  everything  to  him  and  to  his 
master,  except  what  it  owes  to  Admiral  Greig 
in  later  times. 

He  died  at  his  post,  at  Kronstadt  (during  the 
regency  of  Anna  Leopoldovna),  i8th  March, 
1 74 1,  when  the  Jacobites,  who  had  made  much 
of  him,  announced  that  the  Chevalier  de  St. 
George  regretted  *the  honnest  Admiral  very 
much.'  The  Admiral  married  Margaret  Ross, 
the  widow  of  William  Monypenny  (of  the  Pit- 
milly  family).     She  died  before  9th  January, 

1 72 1-2,  and  was  buried  near  the  grave  of  the 

86 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

Tsar's  own  sister  Nathalia  in  the  Church  of  the 
Annunciation  of  the  St.  Alexander  Nevski 
Convent,  St.  Petersburg.  They  had  a  son 
William,  a  sailor ;  a  daughter  Anna,  who  married 
at  St.  Petersburg,  in  1726,  Sir  Henry  Stirling  of 
Ardoch,  who  acted  as  an  agent  for  the  Jacobite 
Court  there ;  and  another  daughter  who  married 
William  Elmsal  of  St.  Petersburg. 

There  was  also  a  Douglas  who  came  into 
Peter's  service  in  a  less  legitimate  way.  Horace 
Marryat^  gives  an  account  of  his  wild  career. 
He  was  one  Count  Gustaf  Otto  Douglas,  bom 
in  1687,  a  lif  drabant  under  Charles  XH. 
After  *  wonderful  adventures '  he  was  taken 
prisoner  at  Poltava  and  reappears  there  as 
Governor  of  Finland.  I  n  a  passion  he  murdered 
at  table  a  Russian  General  of  Police,  and  was 
sent  in  chains  to  St.  Petersburg.  Marryat  adds : 
*  Peter  the  Great,  chancing  to  meet  Douglas 
wheeling  a  barrow  with  other  convicts,  straight- 
way pardoned  and  reinstated  him  in  his  high 
offices.  No  sentiment  of  honour  towards  the 
country  of  his  birtii  influenced  his  conduct.     In 

>  Ofu  Year  in  Sweden^  ii.  p.  465. 

87 


-«■ 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

17 19  he  piloted  the  Russian  fleet  into  Norr- 
koping,  stole  the  bones  of  St.  Henry  (English) 
from  the  Cathedral  of  Abo,  carrying  them  off  to 
St.  Petersburg.  Hence  the  very  name  of  Otto 
was  held  in  horror  among  the  Finns.  The  more 
wicked  he  became  the  more  honours  were 
lavished  upon  him,  till,  when  on  a  commission  in 
Livonia,  he  caused  a  noble  of  high  rank  to  be 
whipped  to  death.  This  was  more  than  even 
the  Czar  could  stand.  Count  Otto  was  advised 
to  retire  to  his  vast  estates,  where  he  was  still 
living  in  1763,  at  that  time  seventy-six  years  of 
age.'  To  this  charming  biography  Dr.  Otto 
Donner^  adds  that  he  was  a  son  of  Count 
Gustaf  Douglas  and  grandson  of  General  Count 
Robert  Douglas  (of  the  Whittinghame  family), 
the  first  of  the  name  in  Sweden.  Both  he  and 
his  brother  Wilhelm  were  taken  prisoners  at 
Poltava  and  conveyed  to  Vologda.  There  he 
entered  the  Russian  service  at  the  age  of  thirty. 
He  was  made  Governor- General  of  Finland  in 
1 7 1 7.    Dr.  Donner  continues :  *  violent  in  temper, 

*  A  Brief  Sketch  of  the  Scottish  Fcimilies  in  Finland  ami 
Sweden^  by  Otto  Donner  (Helsingfors,  1884). 

88 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 
he  in  1 7 19,  at  a  wedding  in  Abo,  slew  the 
Russian  chief  bailiff,  for  which  he  was  deprived 
of  his  post  and  imprisoned.  During  his  rule 
3,000  Finnish  recruits  were  taken  by  force  and 
sent  to  Astrachan,  from  whence  only  a  few  more 
than  400  returned.  After  the  conclusion  of 
peace,  Douglas  removed  to  Esthonia,  became 
Governor  of  Reval,  1 737-41,  and  also  General ; 
but  retired  from  service  in  1751.'     A  troublous 

life! 

Perhaps  it  was  from  the  number  of  Scots  in 

Peter's  service  that  there  arose  the  romantic 
scheme  of  a  reconciliation  between  the  Jacobite 
Non-juring  Episcopal  Church  of  Scotland,  per- 
secuted since  the  accession  to  the  throne  of  Great 
Britain  of  George  I.  (on  whom  Peter  looked 
more  than  coldly),  and  the  Orthodox  Churches 
in  Turkey  and  Russia.  The  Tsar  is  said  to 
have  regarded  the  project  with  a  favourable 
eye.^  The  Scottish  Bishops  (one  of  the  most 
zealous  of  whom  was  Bishop  James  Gadderar 
of  Aberdeen)  and  the  English  Non-juring 
Bishops  entered  seriously  into  negotiations  with 

1  Keith's  Scottish  Bishops y  1824,  appendix,  p.  532. 
M  S9 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

Arsenius,  Metropolitan  of  Thebais,  who  was 
then  in  England,  and  with  the  Patriarchs  of 
Constantinople,  Alexandria,  Jerusalem,  Antioch, 
Heraclea,  Nicomedia,  Chalcedon,  and  Thessa- 
lonica,  with  powers  to  treat  with  all  the  Ortho- 
dox Greek  or  Russian  Churches.  On  the  Tsar's 
death  the  project  died  also,  but  it  is  worthy  of 
much  study,  especially  as,  romantic  though  it 
seemed  then,  it  was  the  precursor  of  the 
rapprochement  between  the  Orthodox  and  the 
Anglican  Churches  in  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  centuries. 

But  the  most  romantic  thing,  and  a  thing  of 
horror  in  Peter  the  Creates  reign,  is  unquestion- 
ably the  execution  of  Mary  Danielovna  Hamilton 
in  1 7 19.  Mary  Hamilton  was  of  that  family 
that  gave  his  mother  her  tincture  of  Western 
freedom  and  culture,  and  was  introduced  to  his 
dangerous  Court  to  wait  on  the  Empress 
Catherine,  the  Livonian  ex-peasant.  The 
Tsar,  on  dit,  fell  in  love  with  her.  But  she 
favoured  others,  and  one  especially,  it  is  said, 
an  Orloff.     Children  were  born  of  her  guilty 

connection,  and  she  destroyed  them.     Russian 

90 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

custom  at  that  time  looked  lightly  on  infanticide, 
but  at  last  she  was  condemned  to  death.     Her 
story  has  been  thought  to  be  the  origin  of  the 
old  ballad,  '  The  Queen's  Marie ' ;  ^  at  any  rate 
the    circumstances    have    much    in    common. 
Catherine  (whom  she  had  laughed  at)  interceded 
for   the   culprit,    and   persuaded    the    Tsaritza 
Prascovia,*  to  intercede  for  her  also,  but  Peter 
was   immovable.     'He   would    not    be  either 
Saul  or  Ahab,  nor  violate  the  Divine  Law  by 
an    excess    of    kindness.'     She    mounted    the 
scaffold    on     the     14th    of    March     dressed, 
according  to  Stachlin,  *  in  a  white  silk  gown 
trimmed  with  black  ribbons.' »    Peter  supported 
her,  and  after  she  was  beheaded,   it   is  said, 
touched  the  pale  lips  with  his  own,  let  the  head 
fall,  crossed   himself  and  departed.     There  is 
confirmation    of    this    gruesome    tale    in    the 
description,   by   a   traveller*   in    1735,   of  the 

1  Sir  Walter  Scott  recorded  this  analogy  (cf.  his  Minstrelsy  of 
the  Scottish  Border), 

'Widow  of  Ivan  Aleksievitch,  n^e  Soltykova. 

»  Waliszewski's  Peter  the  Great,  pp.  221-253. 

*  Voyages  and  Travels  through  the  Russian  Empire,  Tartary^ 
and  Part  of  the  Kingdom  of  Persia,  by  John  Cook,  M.D.  at 
Hamilton,  ed.  1778,  pp.  56-57. 

91 


SCOTTISH   INFLUENCES 

contents  of  the  Academy  of  St.  Petersburg,  a 
description  which  only  an  ex-medical  student 
could  have  written. 

*  Here  I  saw  the  head  of  the  unfortunate 
Miss  Hamilton,  a  Swedish  lady,^  who  lost  it 
for  having  murdered  her  child,  unlawfully 
begotten ;  and  this  is  the  only  murder  of  that 
kind  I  ever  heard  of  in  Russia.  This  lady  was 
maid  of  honour  to  the  Empress  Catherine.  It 
is  said  Peter  went  and  saw  her  executed.  He 
wept  much,  but  could  not  prevail  with  himself 
to  pardon  her,  for  fear,  as  is  said,  that  God 
would  charge  him  with  the  innocent  blood  she 
had  shed.  He  caused  her  head  to  be  cupped, 
and  injected.  The  forehead  is  almost  compleat; 
the  face  is  the  beautifullest  my  eyes  ever 
beheld ;  the  dura  mater  and  brain  are  all 
preserved  in  their  natural  situation.  This  is 
kept  in  spirits,  in  a  large  chrystal  vessal.' 

^  This  is  what  makes  me  think  the  Hamiltons  came  to  Russia 
vid  Sweden. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  BRUCE  FAMILY  IN  RUSSIA.    THE  ESCAPE 

OF  GENERAL  GORDON. 


'I 

m 


\\\ 


92 


■''  J.  4.";.'i.i|niW*— "''I  .-Sfera*- 


'Ha    .    .nai- 


VII. 


>'  1 


We  learn  a  good  deal  about  the  doings  of  the 
Bruce  family  in  Russia  from  the  memoirs  of 
Peter  Henry  Bruce,^  who  served  in  the 
Prussian,  Russian,  and  British  armies  suc- 
cessively. He  narrates  that  two  Bruces,  James 
and  John,  cousins,  both  of  the  family  of  Airth, 
agreed  during  *the  troubles  of  Oliver  Cromwell,* 
to  push  their  fortunes  abroad.  They  desired 
to  go  together,  but  got  by  mischance  into  two 
ships  at  Leith,  one  of  which  went  to  Russia 
and  one  to  Prussia,  and  so  never  met  again! 
James  Bruce  was  the  founder  of  the  Russian 
branch,  but  it  is  from  the  grandson  of  the 
Prussian  John  that  we  learn  most  about  their 

*  Memoirs  of  Peter  Henry  Bruce^  Esq.,  a  military  officer  in  the 
services  of  Prussia^  Russia^  and  Great  Britain^  printed  for  the 
author's  widow,  London,  1782. 

95 


-I 

f 

4 

i 


hA 


ft 


I' J 


!! 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

doings.     Peter  Henry  Bruce  (John's  grandson, 

born  in  1692)  was  in  the  Prussian  army,  and 

saw  much  soldiering  in  the  Netherlands  during 

the  Blenheim  campaign.     It  was  not  until  17 10 

that   he  entered   the    Russian  service   by  the 

invitation  (it  is  a  wonderful  instance  of  clannish 

feeling)  of  General  James  Bruce,  who  was  son 

of  Colonel  William  Bruce  and  grandson  of  the 

James  Bruce  who  had  been  carried  to  Russia 

and  was  now  one  of  the  right-hand  men  of 

Peter  the  Great,  and  head  of  the  Ordnance  at 

Moscow.     He  joined  his  cousin  at  Warsaw  on 

the  1 7th  May,  he  being  there  in  attendance  on 

the  Tsar,  and  at  Taweroff,  on  the   29th,  the 

Tsar  was  privately  married  to  Catherine  Alek- 

sievna  (the  Livonian  ex-peasant),  and  on  this 

occasion  General  Bruce,  who  was  present,  was 

made   Master-General  of  the  Ordnance.     He 

was  already  knight  of  four  Orders,  St.  Andrew, 

the  White    Eagle,   the   Black   Eagle  and   the 

Elephant.    The  campaign  of  the  Pruth  followed, 

Prince    Kantemir's   letter   being    read    at    the 

council  of  war  which  the  Tsar  called  in  General 

Bruce  s   tent.     When   peace  was  made  Peter 

96 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


went  off  on  one  of  those  curious  tours  to 
Germany,  taking  General  Bruce  with  him, 
while  the  latter's  young  relative  was  sent  on  an 
embassy  to  Constantinople,  not  returning  from 
thence  to  Peterhof  until  1 3th  October.  Peters- 
burg was  then  in  its  infancy  and  houses  scarce, 
and  it  is  interesting  to  find  that  young 
Bruce  had  another  protector  there  of  his  kin. 

*  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  accomodated 
in  Lieutenant-General  (Roman  Vilemovitch) 
Bruce's  house,  who  was  commandant  of  Peters- 
burg,^ and  brother  to  the  Master-General  of  the 
Ordnance,'  but  the  last,  being  still  in  Germany, 
ordered  him  to  occupy  his  own  house  in 
Moscow,  *and  stay  in  his  house  with  his  lady 
till  he  should  arrive.'  In  this  way  we  get  the 
following    description    of    Moscow    in    1 7 1 3 : 

*  Coming  in  view  of  it,  in  a  clear  sunshine  day, 

^  His  career  was  this :  born  1668,  he  probably  accompanied 
the  Tsar  Peter  on  his  travels,  1697-98.  He  took  part  in  the 
Siege  of  Schliisselburg.  In  1 704  he  was  made  commandant  of  St. 
Petersburg,  and  till  his  death,  in  1720,  was  occupied  in  building 
the  town.  He  was  buried  in  the  Fort  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul 
(which  he  built)  beside  the  Cathedral,  opposite  the  altar.  It 
was  through  his  influence  that  the  first  Evangelical  Church,  St. 
Anne's,  was  built  in  St.  Petersburg. 
N  97 


;* 


ly 


ii) 


t 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

I  never  saw  so  glorious  a  sight  as  this  city 
presented  at  a  distance,  with  the  vast  numbers 
of  gilded  domes  and  steeples ;  but  my  expecta- 
tions were  greatly  disappointed  when  I  entered 
it,  finding  only  ill-built  wooden  houses,  and 
timber-streets  interspersed  with  churches,  and 
brick-houses  with  large  courts  and  gardens,  the 
habitations  of  the  grandees  and  people  of 
fortune ;  and  coming  to  General  Bruce's  house, 
I  met  with  a  very  kind  reception  from  his  lady, 
who  treated  me  with  the  affection  of  a  mother : 
they  had  then  no  child.*. 

He  was  witness  of  the  *  great  and  dreadful 
fire*  which  broke  out  *in  a  maiden  monastery 
outside  the  town,'^  which  'consumed  the 
greatest  part  of  the  city,  especially  the  wooden 
houses,'  and  was  astonished  to  see  how  soon 
it  was  rebuilt.     Moscow  was   in  a  transition 

^Probably  the  Novo  Devichi  monastery.  Founded  in  1524, 
it  was  to  it  that  the  Tsaritza  Irina,  sister  of  Boris  Godounoff, 
retired,  and  in  it  Maria,  widow  of  Magnus,  King  of  Livonia, 
niece  of  Ivan  the  Terrible,  was  *shut  up'  by  Boris  Godounoff 
(the  editor  of  Horsey's  Travels  (Hakluyt  Society)  confuses  it 
with  the  Troitza,  where  she  was  ultimately  buried).  Later, 
the  Tsarevna  Sophia,  Regent,  who  was  forced  to  become  the 
Nun  Susanna,  as  we  have  seen,  by  her  brother  Peter  the 
Great,  was  interned  here. 

98 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

state ;  the  people  of  rank— driven  to  it  by  the 
Reforming  Tsar,  had  Maid  aside  the  old 
customs  and  manners  of  their  fathers,'  were 
now  dressed  *in  the  French  fashion,'  and  the 
ladies  were  *very  gay,'  giving  dances  (on 
emerging  from  the  Terem!),  the  Swedish 
prisoners  taken  at  Poltava  being  their  instruc- 
tors and  partners,  their  husbands  being  mostly 
employed  to  *  serve'  their  terrible  master  abroad 
in  some  way  or  other. 

On  I  St  January,  17 14,  General  Bruce  arrived 
in  Moscow  to  remove  his  family  to  Petersburg. 
A  thousand  of  the  best  and  most  substantial 
families  in  Moscow  had  received  orders  for  the 
same  purpose.  The  Court  removed,  and,  the 
Archangel  trade  with  Moscow  forbidden,  the 
life  of  Moscow  changed,  *so  that  this  metro- 
polis, once  the  pleasantest  and  most  agreeable 
city  in  all  Russia,  became  quite  deserted,  none 
remaining  in  it  but  the  vulgar,  which  was  a 
great  mortification  to  all  ranks  of  people  being 
obliged  to  leave  a  place  of  such  plenty  for  one 
where  everything  was  both  scarce  and  dear.* 
With  General  Bruce  young  Peter  saw  much  of 

99 


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WHf^'^ 


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4fi 


1  » 

I 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

the  Tsarevitch,  Aleksei  Petrovitch,  whom  he 
thought  meanly  of.  The  Tsar  absolutely  dis- 
regarded his  subjects'  discomfort  in  the  new 
capital,^  being  wholly  intent  upon  its  progress 
and  that  of  Kronstadt.  *  It  was  surprising  to 
see  so  many  great  things  undertaken  and  put 
in  execution  by  one  single  person,  without  the 
assistance  and  help  of  anyone ;  his  own  great 
genius  and  indefatigable  application  to  things, 
presiding  over  all,  and  seeing  everything  with 
his  own  eyes  ...  so  that  never  monarch  was 
less  imposed  on  than  himself.'  Petersburg  had 
to  be  glazed  with  glass  from  England,  but  the 
Tsar  erected  large  manufactories  for  making 
window  and  looking  glass,  under  the  direction 
of  Englishmen,  at  Moscow.  In  1716  young 
Bruce  was  commanded  to  discipline  thirty  tall 

*  It  was  his  own  creation.  *  He  found  only  four  fishermen's 
huts,  to  which  he  added  a  house  for  himself  on  an  island  for 
himself,  on  an  island  in  the  north  side  of  the  river,  and  called  it 
Petersburg.  This  house  was  only  a  shelter  from  the  weather 
and  to  rest  in  . . .  but  in  memory  of  this  great  undertaking,  it 
has  been  preserved  ever  since.  Lieutenant-General  Robert 
Bruce,  commandant  of  the  city,  has  the  charge  and  use  of  this 
original  hall,  and  has  built  a  very  good  house  adjoining  to  it  for 
himself;  which  was  one  of  the  first  that  made  a  show  in  this 
place.' 

100 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

and  fine  grenadiers,  '  intended  as  a  present  to 
the    King   of    Prussia,'    and    'collected    from 
different  parts  of  the  Czar's  dominions.*     Three 
years  later,  after  the  Naval  war  in  Danish  seas, 
Peter    Bruce,   who    now    had    a   company  of 
artillery  under  General  Bruce,  desired  again  to 
join   the    Prussian   army,  and  applied  for  his 
discharge,  but  '  could  by  no  means  obtain  it,  so 
I  was  obliged  to  continue   in  the  Muscovite 
service,  very  much  against  my  inclination.'     In 
his  enforced  continuance  in  the  country  he  saw 
(or  heard)  much  of  the  trial  and  death  of  the 
unfortunate  Tsarevitch,  Peter's  son:  *  various 
were  the  reports  that  were  spread  concerning 
his   death  . . .  very    few    believed    he   died    a 
natural  death,  but  it  was  dangerous  to  speak  as 
they  thought'     Peter  Bruce  had  the  military 
charge  of  the  dead    Tsarevitch's  son,    Peter 
Aleksievitch,  afterwards  Peter  II.     *The  Czar 
came  frequently  to  see  him  perform  his  exer- 
cises, and  was  vastly  pleased  with  his  sprightli- 
ness  and  attention ;  and  seeing  some  draughts 
and  models  of  fortification  laying  on  the  table, 
he    asked    the    young    prince    the    use    and 


lOI 


'  i 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

advantage  of  each  particular  work,  to  which  he 
gave  his  answers  so  readily  . . .  that  his  grand- 
father was  so  well  pleased,  that  he  embraced 
him  most  heartily,  and  made  him  a  present  of 
his  picture  richly  set  with  diamonds,  and  gave 
him  an  ensign's  commission  in  the  first  regiment 
of  guards/     In  1721  Peter  Bruce  heard  he  had 
succeeded  to  a  small  estate  in  Scotland,  and 
begged   Count  Bruce  to  get  him  leave  to  go 
thither,  but  the  inexorable  Tsar  refused,  until 
his    own    pleasure.     The   triumphal   entry   to 
Moscow  was  in  the  air.     This  triumphal  entry 
was  followed  by  'six  weeks'  feasting,'  and  then 
on  22nd  February,   1722,  a  proclamation  was 
made  'by  the  sound  of  trumpet,'  to  acknowledge 
the  successor  to  the  throne,  whom  the  autocrat 
should  nominate.     'The  order,  however,  must 
be  obeyed,  and  was  complied  with  by  many 
with  a  reluctant  heart  . .  .  this  was  to  me  the 
most  disagreeable  service  I  ever  performed  in 
Russia,  as   I  was  so  well  acquainted  with  the 
excellent  temper  and  genius  of  the  young  prince 
(Peter  Aleksievitch),  having  had  the  honour  to 
teach  him  the  military  exercises  and  fortifica- 


102 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

tion,   and   to   whose  prejudice   this   oath   was 

certainly  administered.' 

The   Caspian  and    Persian   campaigns  and 

many  detours  in  Russia  followed  before  the 

Scot   obtained   his    'liberty.'     In   1724   things 

went  a  little  better,  and  he  was  told  that  'as 

soon   as   the    Empress   Catherine's  coronation 

was    over'   he   would   receive    his  dispatches. 

Moscow  hummed  with  foreigners  and  natives 

for  this  event,  and  at  the  ceremony  he  recounts 

that  'No.  13,  Count  Bruce,  a  privy  counsellor 

and  master  of  the  horse,'  carried  the  crown, 

his  wife,  'the  Countess  of  Bruce,'  following  as 

one  of  the  train-bearers  of  the  Empress  herself. 

Peter  Bruce  was  offered  more  preferment,  and 

did  not  get  his  furlough  from  Count  Bruce's 

representation  to  Prince  Menschikoff  until  27th 

May,  1724.     Even  then  he  'received  the  pay 

and  forage  money  due  to  me  from  the  regiment, 

but  could  not  get  the  two  years'  pay  that  was 

due  to  me  as  Engineer,  and  which  amounted  to 

twelve  hundred  rubles,  but  was  told  the  money 

appropriated   for  the  payment   of  the  service 

was  at  Petersburg,   and   I   must   go   there   to 

103 


Ml 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

receive  it,  which,  if  I  had  done,  would  have 
effectually  put  a  stop  to  my  journey.  I 
empowered  Major-General  Le  Fort  to  receive 
my  pay,  and  sell  my  house  and  furniture  in 
Petersburg,  and  to  remit  me  the  money  to 
Scotland,  but  a  stop  was  put  to  it  till  my 
return,  and  at  the  expiration  of  my  furlough, 
everything  I  had  left  there  was  seized,  so  that 
I  had  no  reason  to  boast  of  any  advantage  I 
reaped  in  Russia  after  thirteen  years*  service.'^ 
In  those  times  it  was  much  easier  getting 
into  Russia  than  out  of  it,  as  was  evident  in  the 
case  of  Major-General  Gordon,  who  *  wanted 
very  much  to  quit  the  service,  and  solicited  his 
discharge  by  every  application  in  his  power, 
but  all  in  vain ;  and,  being  in  Poland  on  a 
separate  command,'  after  the  battle  of  Poltava, 
*  he  took  that  opportunity  to  send  to  Moscow  for 
his  wife  and  daughters,  and  on  their  arrival  in 
Poland  he  carried  them  to  Danzig,  where  he 
took  shipping  and  sailed  for  Scotland.' ^ 

*He  went  into  the  British  service,  and  in  1745  helped  to 
fortify    Berwick.     He  retired    soon  afterwards,  and    died  in 

1757. 
^Memoirs  of  Peter  Henry  Bruce^  p.  1 14. 

104 


.  H 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


CATHERINE   I.     PETER   II.      MARSHAL  KEITH. 
ANNA  IVANOVNA.    OTHER  SCOTS.    ELIZABETH 


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VIII. 

The  short  and  tumultuous  reign  of  Peter's 
widow,  the  Tsaritza  Catherine  I.,  did  nothing 
to  attract  foreigners.  Short  though  it  was, 
that  of  his  grandson  her  successor,  Peter  II., 
brought  at  least  one  Scot  of  great  distinction  to 
Russia,  in  the  person  of  General  James  Francis 
Edward  Keith,  now  perhaps  best  known  as  the 
inventor  of  Kriegspiel.  Born  in  Scotland  in 
1696,  the  younger  son  of  the  Earl  Marischal  of 
Scotland  and  Lady  Mary  Drummond,  James 
Keith,  *  having  an  elder  brother  (the  last  Earl 
Marischal,  the  friend  of  Frederick  the  Great), 
was  intitled  to  no  other  designation  but  simply 
that  of  his  name,  as  the  family  honours,  in 
many  estates  of  Europe,  belong  exclusively  to 
the  eldest  son.'^     Of  a  fervent  Jacobite  stock, 

1 A  Discourse  on  the  Death  of  Marshal  Keith^  kindly  lent  me 

by  W.  Keith  Murray,  Esq. 

107 


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SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 


both  he  and  his  brother  were  'out'  in  the  '15, 
and,  being  attainted,  lost  their  all  and  were 
forced  to  take  service  under  other  flags.  At 
first  he  entered  that  of  Spain,  but,  being  a 
Protestant,  advancement  was  impossible,  so  he 
fixed  his  eyes  on  Russia,  and  with  a  brevet  of 
Major-General  from  the  Emperor,  arrived  there 
in  1729,  and  *  immediately  gained  the  good 
graces  of  the  young  sovereign,  Peter  II.  (partly 
taught  in  military  matters  by  the  Scot,  Captain 
Bruce,  as  we  have  seen),  and  who  gave  him  a 
Lieutenant-Colonel's  commission  in  a  new 
regiment  of  guards,  which  was  just  levied,  and 
of  which  Count  Lowenwolde  was  Colonel. 
He  rose  rapidly,  *  because  he  always  did  his 
duty  as  a  brave  officer,  without  intermeddling 
with  any  State  intrigues ' — and  there  were  the 
Dolgoroukis,  one  of  whom.  Princess  Catherine 
Aleksievna  Dolgoroukaya,^  became  the  Tsar's 
fiancee,  against   the   Menschikoffs   during   the 

1  Keith  had  a  poor  opinion  of  her  brother,  Prince  Ivan,  the 
Tsar's  mentor,  and  pronounced  him  to  be  *  one  much  fitter  to 
direct  a  pack  of  hounds  (which  had  been  his  study  the  greatest 
part  of  his  life),  than  such  a  vast  empire.' — Memoirs  of  Marshal 
Keiths  pp.  80-81. 

108 


IN   RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

Tsar's  short  reign— till  Peter  IL  died  in  1730. 
Keith  at  once  took  the  oath  to  the  new  Empress, 
Anna  Ivanovna,  Duchess  of  Courland  (Peter 
the   Great's   niece),    who   was  brought  out  of 
her  obscurity  at  Mittau  to  please  the  oligarchic 
party,    and     was     made     Lieutenant -Colonel 
of   her   bodyguard,    *an   emploiement    looked 
on  as  one  of  the  greatest  trusts  in  the  empire.' 
When  the   Polish   war  came   on  in   1733,  he 
found  himself  serving  under  the  Irish  Catholic, 
General  de  Lacy.     After  the  fall  of  Danzig  in 
1734,  he  was  made  Lieutenant-General.    How- 
ever successful,  Keith  did  not  like  the  task  of 
coercing  Poland,  deeming  the  duty  '  not  a  very 
honourable   one.'     His   next   service   was   the 
German  war,  and  then  against  the  Turks  in 
the  Ukraine.     In  this,  successful  though  it  was, 
Keith    protested    against    the    Russo-German 
General  Munnich's  waste  of  human  life,  and 
being  wounded  in  the  knee  at  Otchakoff,  2nd 
July,  1737,  was  incapacitated  for  the  rest  of  the 
campaign.     *  I  had  sooner,'  said  the  Empress 
Anna,  '  lose  ten  thousand  of  my  best  soldiers 

than  Keith.'     He  was  able,  therefore,  to  visit 

109 


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11 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

Paris  and  London,  where  he  was  now  viewed, 
not  as  a  Jacobite  exile,  but  as  a  great  General. 
He  returned  to  Russia  and  was  made  Governor 
of  the  Ukraine,  and  his  humane  rule  made  him 
considered  one  of  the  best  Governors  the 
unfortunate  Ukraine  had  ever  had. 

On  the  death  of  ^  the  Empress  Anna  Ivan- 
ovna,   28th  October,    1740,  her  grandnephew, 
Ivan  Antonovitch  (of  Brunswick)  was  declared 
Emperor.     For  twenty-two  days  her  favourite, 
Johann  Ernst  Biron,  Duke  of  Courland,  acted  as 
Regent,  and  then,  by  a  palace  revolution,  the 
boy  Tsar  s  mother,  Anna  Leopoldovna,  was  de- 
clared Regent.     Her  rule  was  weak,  and  ended 
suddenly  on  25th  November,   1741,  when  her 
mother's  cousin,  Elizabeth,  the  younger  daughter 
of  Peter  the  Great,  threw  off  her  usual  lassitude, 
put  herself  at  the  head  of  her  Guards,  assumed 
the  title  of  Empress,  and  sent  the  deposed  royal 
family  packing  to  Kholmogory,  in  strict  custody 
and  into  lifelong  exile.     We  are  told  that  *  Mr. 
Keith  acknowledged  the  new  Sovereign  with- 

1  Alexander  Gordon,  a  son  of  John  Gordon,  of  Glenbucket,  in 
the  Russian  Navy,  was  killed  in  1740  fighting  against  the 
Turks. 

110 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

out  hesitation ;  and  after  the  example  of  his 
friend  and  countryman,  Lascy  (Lacy),  took  the 
oath  of  allegiance '  again.  Before  her  accession 
he  fought  against  Sweden,  and  aided  in  the 
reduction  of  Willmannstrand.^  The  Swedish 
campaign  continued  during  Elizabeth's  reign, 
and  did  not  finish  until  the  capture  of  Helsing- 
fors  and  the  Aland  Islands  forced  the  cession  of 
Karelia  to  Russia.  Service  under  Elizabeth 
was  less  agreeable  to  foreigners  than  that  under 
Anna,  and  we  find  that  Generals  Keith,  Lowen- 
dahl,  Lieven,  Douglas,  all  wished  to  retire. 
Keith  was,  to  pacify  him,  offered  the  command 
in  chief  against  the  Persians  and  the  Order  of 
St.  Andrew,  but  he  only  accepted  the  last.  War 
with  Sweden  broke  out  again,  and  he  was  em- 
ployed, always  with  success ;  and  he  was  later 
both  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Russian  forces 
and  Minister-plenipotentiary  to  Sweden,  receiv- 
ing swords  of  honour  galore.  He  was  in  the 
Prussian  campaign  in  1745,  ^^^  ^^xt  year  had 
his  troops  reviewed  by  the  Empress  at  Narva. 

*  It  was  here  that  he  met  an  orphan  prisoner,  Eva  Merthens, 
whom  he  educated.  To  her  and  her  children  by  him  he  left  all 
his  money. 

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SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

His  position  was,  however,  not  comfortable,  and 
his  commands  were  removed  one  by  one.  It  is 
said  that  the  amorous  Empress  wished  to  marry 
him,  and  he  feared  Siberia  if  he  refused.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  he  did  not  like  the  Russian 
service ;  his  brother  was  forbidden,  as  a  Jaco- 
bite, to  visit  him  at  Riga,  and  he  eventually 
obtained  his  dismission  and  slipped  away,  to  die 
gloriously  as  Marshal  Keith  at  the  battle  of 
Hochkirchen,  14th  October,  1758,*  in  the 
service  of  Frederick  the  Great.  We  are  told 
that  he  spoke  six  languages,  and  had  *  seen  all 
the  Courts  of  Europe,  great  and  small,  from 
that  of  Avignon  to  the  residence  of  the  Khan  of 
Tartary,  and  accommodated  himself  to  every 
place  as  if  it  had  been  his  native  country. 
General,  minister,  courtier,  philosopher — all 
these  characters,  however  different  in  them- 
selves, were  in  him  united.'     Certainly  a  great 

1 A  much  fuller  account  of  his  career  is  given  in  Hill  Burton's 
Scot  Abroad.  Some  interesting  letters  showing  his  difficulties 
in  the  Russian  service  are  given  in  the  Report  of  Lord  Elphin- 
stone's  MSS.  {Historical  MSS.  Commission,  IXth  Report).  A 
letter  of  his,  written  from  the  camp  of  Fascula,  ist  Sept.,  1741* 
mentions  *  the  Scots  merchants  who  are  settled  at  Petersburg 
receiving  letters  from  Edinburgh  every  week.* 

112 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

man.  With  Marshal  Keith  in  Russia  was  a 
cousin.  Sir  Robert  Keith,  5th  Bart,  of  Ludqu- 
hairn.  He  served  there  fifteen  years,  and  was 
in  most  of  the  campaigns  in  Poland,  Germany, 
Turkey  and  Sweden.  After  the  General's 
death,  he  entered  the  Danish  service.  He 
married  Margaret  Albertina  Conradina  von 
Suchin,  daughter  of  the  Saxon  envoy  to 
Russia,  and  left  a  family.^ 

Another  of  Elizabeth's  Scottish  Generals  was 
General  John  Fullarton,  of  Dud  wick.  He 
remained  (with  General  Brown,  styled  *an 
Englishman')  in  the  Empress's  service  after 
most  of  the  other  foreign  officers.  He  died, 
surrounded  by  Russian  servants,  unmarried, 
in  Scotland,  at  the  end  of  -the  eighteenth 
century. 

We  get  an  account  of  part  of  the  reigns  of 
Anna  Ivanovna  and  Elizaveta  Petrovna  in  the 
writings  of  Dr.  John  Cook,^  who  went  to  Russia 
in  1735.     He  mentions  many  Scottish  doctors 

^  Douglas's  Baronage  of  Scotland,  p.  75. 

2  Voyages  and  Travels  through  the  Russian  Empire,  Tartary, 
and  part  of  the  Kingdom  of  Persia,  by  John  Cook,  M.D.  at 
Hamilton  ;  Edinburgh,  1768. 

P  113 


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SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

in  St.  Petersburg — Lewis  Calderwood,  who 
went  to  Russia  in  1728,  as  surgeon  to  the 
Preobrajenski  Guards,  and  was  employed  in 
Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg  hospitals  until  he 
died,  in  1755 — and  Dr.  James  Mounsey  (from 
Lochmaben),  who  was  afterwards  made  Physi- 
cian to  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  and  who  later 
introduced  rhubarb  as  a  medicine  into  Great 
Britain ;  Mr.  Selkirk,  *  surgeon  to  the  Guards,' 
and  Mr.  Malloch.  Scots  bristle  through  his 
volumes,  from  great  *  Russian  merchants '  ^  like 
Mungo  Graeme,  of  Garvock,  down  to  '  Peter 
Miln,  who  had  been  nine  years  keeping  the 
books  for  *'Mr.  Demidoff"  belonging  to  his 
great  ironworks  in  Siberia.'  In  the  wars  with 
Turkey,  in  1 736-1 739,  he  resided  in  'Taverhoff,' 
and  gives  a  pretty  good  account  of  the  military 

1  Allan  Ramsay  wrote  a  poem  to  Mr.  Donald  MacEwan, 
'  Jeweller  at  St.  Petersburg,'  which  has  the  verses  : 

It  is  the  mind  that's  not  confin'd 

To  passions  mean  and  vile, 
That's  never  pin'd,  while  thoughts  refin'd 

Can  gloomy  cares  beguile. 

Then  Donald  may  be  e'en  as  gay 

On  Russia's  distant  shore. 
As  on  the  Tay,  where  usquebae 

He  us'd  to  drink  before. 
114 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


operations.  He  mentions,  in  1737,  General 
Leslie,  *a  gentleman  of  Scots  extraction,'  who 
with  his  troops  refused  to  surrender  to  the 
Tartars,  and  died  like  men.  A  Mr.  Innes, 
lieutenant  in  the  Horse  Guards,  from  Aber- 
deen, was  a  volunteer  under  Miinnich,  and 
helped  to  stop  some  cruelties.  He  rose,  by 
bravery,  to  the  rank  of  a  Colonel  of  Dragoons 
during  the  war,  but  was  killed  before  its  end. 
He  calls  him  *The  brave  Innes,  the  soldiers' 
friend,  and  beloved  of  all  good  men/  A  Colonel 
Johnston — *  old  Johnston,'  Cook  familiarly 
names  him — *  a  Scotsman  from  Kenneil,'  flits 
across  his  pages ;  and  one  Lieutenant  Glassford, 
Commandant  of  the  port  of  Earkee,  is  several 
times  mentioned.  Most  interesting  of  all  is  his 
description  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth  herself, 
whom  the  deluded  Jacobites  so  fondly  hoped 
Prince  Charlie  would  marry.  *She  was  of  a 
large  stature,  and  inclineable  to  be  fat,  but 
extremely  beautiful ;  and  in  her  countenance  I 
saw  so  much  mildness  and  majesty,  that  I  can- 
not in  words  express  them.  Her  hair  was 
black,    and    her   skin    white    as    **snow   un- 

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SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

sunn'd."  ...  At  this  time  Count  Razumovski 
(Aleksei  Gregorievitch  Razumovski)  was  at- 
tending her  Majesty.  It  is  really  surprising 
that  a  fat,  though  young  woman,  could  move  so 
cleverly  as  the  Empress  did,  in  so  much  that  I 
could  scarce  hear  her  feet  upon  the  floor ;  but 
indeed  her  august  presence  had  much  discon- 
certed me.'  ^ 

^  Voyages  and  Travels  through  the  Russian  Empire^  Tartary^ 
and  part  of  the  Kingdom  of  Persia^  by  John  Cook,  M.D.  at 
Hamilton,  ii.  p.  570 ;  Edinburgh,  1768. 


i( 


116 


CHAPTER   IX. 


SCOTTISH  FAMILIES  SETTLED  IN  RUSSIA.  THE 
COURT  PHYSICIANS.  ROGERSON.  OTHER 
SCOTS-SIR  JAMES  V^YLIE,  COUNT  BARCLAY 
DE  TOLLY,  LERMONTOFF.    CONCLUSION. 


mmmm 


\  ; 


!i. 


IX. 


Peter    III.,    the    nephew    and    heir    of   the 

Empress    Elizabeth,   had    but   a  short    reign, 

being,   after  reigning  a   few  months,   deposed 

by  his   wife,   Sophia   of  Anhalt-Zerbst,    who, 

after  his   murder,    ruled   as   Catherine    II.,  or 

as  Catherine   the   Great,  from   1762  to    1796. 

Taking  up  the  mande  of  Peter  the  Great,  she 

made  the  Russian  people  her  own  by  becoming 

one  of  themselves.     It  was  not  so  much  that 

she  did  not  encourage  foreigners  as  well,   for 

she    did,    but  all    her    chief   favourites    were 

Russians,  and  it  was  to  them  that  she  gave  the 

chief  power,  and  to   everything   she   carefully 

gave    a    Russian    dress.      Times,    also,    had 

changed.     Russia  was  no  longer  the  backward 

Byzantine   empire  it  had  been  when  Peter  I. 

began  to  reign.     He   had  battered  down  the 

119 


Ti 


^ 

% 


' 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

wall  that  had  separated  it  from  Western 
Europe,  and  by  the  time  Catherine  came  to 
occupy  his  throne,  a  class  of  Westernised 
Russians  with  Western  ideas — mainly  French, 
but  in  part  German — had  grown  up.  The  use 
of  the  Scots  naturally  became  much  less,  but 
there  were  still  several  names  of  note.  The 
Bruces,  now  a  Russified  family,  were  powerful 
at  Court.  Count  James  Alexandrovitch  Bruce, 
born  1742,  fought  against  the  Swedes,  and 
was  Governor  of  Moscow  in  1781-86.  He 
died  at  St.  Peterisburg  in  1790-91,  being 
buried  in  the  Monastery  of  St.  Alexander 
Nevski.^ 

Another  Count  Bruce  (uncle?)  was  Senator, 
Lieutenant-General  of  the  Semenovski  Guards, 
General-in-Chief,  and  Governor  of  Novgorod 
and  Tver.  His  wife  was  Prascovia  Alex- 
androvna  Roumiantsova,  sister  of  the  great 
General  Roumiantsoff.^  She  was  born  7th  Octo- 
ber, 1729,  and  married  in  1751.     She  was  one 

1  He  had  one  daughter,  who  married  into  the  family  of  Mysin- 
Pushkin,  and  took  the  name  of  Bruce,  but  had  no  children. 

*  K.  Waliszewski,  Story  of  a  Throne^  p.  380. 

120 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

of  Catherine  the  Great's  confidantes^  and  on 
intimate  terms  until  she  supplanted  the  Em- 
press with  her  favourite,  Korsakoff.  Exile  from 
Court  ensued,  still  the  Empress  wrote  of  her  on 
her  death,  on  7th  April,  1786 :  *It  is  impossible 
not  to  regret  her  when  one  has  known  her  so 
well/* 

Almost  a  more  important  confidant  of  the 
Empress  was  the  Dumfriesshire-born  Dr.  John 
Rogerson.  He  went,  preceded  by  his  neigh- 
bour. Dr.  Matthew  Halliday,  out  to  Russia  in 
1766,  and  became  the  Imperial  Physician. 
Every  secret  of  the  extraordinary  Court  was 
confided  to  his  ear.  He  knew  the  details  of  the 
favourite  Lanskois'  end,  and  of  the  Empress's 
strange  death.  In  1786  the  Comte  de  S^gur 
noted  the  doctor's  departure  to  England  for  six 
months,  and  added :  *  As  he  dabbles  in  politics 

*  Princess  DashkofF— to  use  the  Western  form  of  her  name — 
nie  Vorontzova,  another  of  the  Empress's  earlier  confidantes^ 
lived  for  a  year  at  Holyrood  while  her  son  was  at  Edinburgh 
University  under  Principal  Robertson  in  1778-79. 

'  K.  Waliszewski,  The  Story  of  a  Throne^  p.  380.  He  gives 
the  date  of  her  death  as  1785,  but  the  other  is  on  the  photograph 
of  her  tombstone,  kindly  sent  to  me  by  Mr.  Clement  J.  Char- 
nock,  of  Moscow. 

Q  121 


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SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

as  much  as  in  medicine,  and  it  is  through  his 
hands  that  the  bribes  are  supposed  to  pass,  I 
cannot  but  be  very  pleased  at  his  absence.'^ 
Anyway,  he  was  honoured  by  the  complete 
confidence  of  his  Imperial  mistress,  and  re- 
tained that  of  her  son,  the  Emperor  Paul. 

Clarke'  gives  a  delightful  anecdote  of  him. 
'  Dr.  Rogerson/  he  says,  '  as  we  were  informed, 
regularly  received '  (from  his  patients'  hands) 
'his  snuff-box,  and  as  regularly  carried  it  to 
a  jeweller  for  sale.  The  jeweller  sold  it  again 
to  the  first  nobleman  who  wanted  a  fee  for  his 
physician ;  so  that  the  doctor  obtained  his  box 
again,  and  at  last  the  matter  became  so  well 
understood  between  the  jeweller  and  the  phy- 
sician, that  it  was  considered  by  both  parties 
as  a  sort  of  banknote,  and  no  words  were 
necessary  in  transacting  the  sale  of  it*  These 
*  bank  notes '  allowed  Dr.  Rogerson  to  acquire 
the  lands  of  Wamphray,  in  his  native  Dumfries- 
shire, and  to  maintain  some  state,  and  to  build 
the   house   of   Dumcrieff,   where    he   died  in 

1 K.  Waliszewski,  T/i£  Story  of  a  Throne,  p.  389. 
^Travelsy-p^,  113-4. 

122 


il 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

1823.  The  grateful  Empress  presented  him 
with  a  collection  of  casts  of  all  the  medals 
struck  by  her  Grand  Ducal  or  Imperial  prede- 
cessors (the  *  False  Dimitri '  is,  oddly  enough, 
omitted,  pour  caused),  which,  in  a  delightful 
eighteenth  century  case  still  exist.^ 

Though  Dr.  Rogerson,  Dr.  Guthrie  and  Sir 
James  Wylie  (of  whom  we  shall  hear  later) 
were  the  chief  physicians  in  the  reigns  of 
Catherine  and  Paul,  and  political  powers,  we 
are  told  that :  *  Persons  calling  themselves 
English  Physicians  are  found  in  almost  every 
town'  in  Russia.  *  Sometimes  they  have  served 
in  apothecaries*  shops  in  London  and  Edinburgh ; 
but  generally  they  are  Scots  apothecaries  who 
are  men  of  Professional  Skill  and  acknowledged 
Superiority.*  At  St.  Petersburg  the  Court 
Banker,  Sutherland,  was  a  Scot  Catherine 
made  Robert  Rutherford  (fourth  son  of  Sir  John 
Rutherford  of  that  ilk,  who  died  unmarried), 
for   many   years   a    merchant    in    Leghorn,   a 

^  The  author's  grrandfather  acquired  them  from  Dr.  Rogerson's 
son,  and  they  are  now  in  the  author's  possession.  He  repro- 
duces three  as  illustrations  to  this  book. 

2  Clarke's  Travels,  p.  114. 

123 


■ 


In 


I 


It 


11 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

Baron  of  the  Russian  Empire;  and  one  of 
the  Court  Painters  (who  accompanied  the 
Tsaritsa  in  her  celebrated  Progress  to  Crimea 
with  Potemkin)  bore  the  Scottish  name  of 
John  Lindsay. 

It  was  the  maritime  needs  of  the  Russian 
Empire  that   brought  the  true  worth  of  the 
Scots    to   the    great    mind    of   the    Empress 
Catherine.      She   recruited    many    Scots   from 
the    British   Navy,   the   chief  of  whom   were 
Admirals  Greig  and  Elphinstone.     The  Scots 
made  a  great  name  in  the  land  of  their  adop- 
tion, and  the  Russian  Navy  owes   everything 
to  them.     Samuel  Carlovitch  Greig,  of  Inver- 
keithing  in  Fife,  went  to  Russia  in  1763,  with 
five  other  British  officers,  mostly  Scots.     He 
destroyed  the  Turkish  fleet  in  1770,^  with  his 
fire-ships,  showing,  with  Lieutenant  Drysdale, 
extraordinary  heroism,   and   was   hailed,  from 

^Thc  doings  of  Greig  and  Elphinstone  in  this  war  will  be 
found  in  An  Authentic  Narrative  of  the  Russian  Expedition 
against  the  Turks  by  Sea  and  Land )  London,  1772.  Other  Scots 
mentioned  are  Mackenzie  and  Glasgow.  Also  the  Englishman, 
Dugdale,  who  became  an  Admiral.  An  account  of  Greig  is  also 
in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

124 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

his  service  and  discipline,  the  Father  of  the 
Russian  Navy.  He  was  the  chief  instrument 
in  the  conquest  of  Crimea  and  the  founding  of 
Sebastopol,  and  was  later  Governor  of  Kron- 
stadt,  which  he  strengthened  and  refortified. 
He  again  fought  the  Turks  in  1774,  and  against 
the  Swedes,  but  in  1 788  died  on  his  own  ship, 
the  '  Rotislav'  (*  Wratislaw'),  on  26th  October, 
in  his  fifty-third  year. 

It  was  Greig  who  had  the  ungrateful  (and 
certainly  unworthy)  task  of  conveying  as  prisoner 
the  mysterious  and  interesting  Princess  Tarak- 
anoffi  to  her  Russian  captivity,  after  she  had 
been  disgracefully  entrapped  at  Leghorn  by 
Alexis  Orloff  on  behalf  of  the  Empress,  with 
the  assistance,  one  regrets  to  relate,  of  another 
Scot,  John  Dick,  the  British  Consul  there.  We 
need  say  no  more  about  the  piteous  story  except 
to  point  out  that  Greig  treated   the  captive 

1  Princess  Tarakanoff  was  an  adventuress  who  claimed,  or 
was  thought  to  claim,  to  be  daughter  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth 
and  Razoumoffski.  Catherine  II.  was  much  alarmed,  had  her 
entrapped  at  Leghorn  and  carried  to  Russia,  where,  it  is  believed, 
she  died  in  the  prison  of  the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
4th  December,  1775. 

125 


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SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

kindly,  and  that  the  enlevement  was  wholly 
characteristic  of  the  time. 

The  Greig  family  settled  in  Russia.  The 
Admiral  was  friendly  to  his  compatriots.  Robert 
Simpson,  one  of  his  Fleet  Surgeons  in  1774, 
became  in  1792  Chief  Surgeon  of  the  great 
Naval  hospital  of  Kronstadt.  The  Admiral's 
son,  Sir  Alexis  Greig,  entered  the  Russian 
Navy,  and  for  remonstrating  with  the  Emperor 
Paul  for  the  latter's  severity  to  some  British 
seamen,  was  exiled  in  1801  for  a  short  time  to 
Siberia,  but  he  became  an  Admiral,  and  com- 
manded in  1828  at  the  siege  of  Varna.  His 
son,  Vorontzoff  Greig,  later  fought  on  the 
Russian  side  in  the  Crimean  War,  and  was 
killed  at  Inkermann. 

John  Elphinstone,  the  other  Scottish  Admiral, 

whose   kinsman   had   been   in   Ivan  Groznie's 

army,  died  in  1785,  but  in  England.     He  had 

begun  by  being  le  desird  of  the  Empress,  but 

his   opposition   to   her   favourite   of  the  time, 

Alexis   Orloff,  soon  weakened  his  popularity. 

In  fact  he  as  Admiral  had  been  the  real  hero 

of  the  battle   of  Tchesm6,   but   the    Empress 

126 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

was  anxious  to  praise  a  Russian  to  give  popu- 
larity to  her  alien-born  rule,  and  gave  all  the 
laurels  to  Orloff.  One  branch  of  the  Elphin- 
stones  remained  in  the  Russian  service.  The 
Admiral's  eldest  son,  Samuel  William,  became 
a  Captain  in  the  Navy,  and  married  the  daughter 
of  his  father's  colleague.  Admiral  Kruse.  His 
descendants  are  enrolled  among  the  nobles  of 
Livonia.  John  Carr  gives  an  anecdote  of  an 
Elphinstone  of  the  third  generation  in  St. 
Petersburg  at  Kameni  Ostrov.^ 

*  After  the  battle  between  the  Russian  and 
Swedish  fleets  off  Cronstadt  in  May,  1790, 
Captain  Elphinstone,  then  a  very  young  lieu- 
tenant, was  dispatched  by  his  uncle.  Admiral 
Creuse,  to  Catherine,  who  was  at  that  time  at 
the  palace  of  Tsarko  Selo,  with  the  account  of 
the  successful  manoeuvres  of  her  fleet . . .  Young 
Elphinstone  arrived  at  the  palace  late  at  night 
in  his  fighting  clothes,  covered  with  dust  and 
gunpowder,  and  severely  fatigued  with  long  and 
arduous  duty.     His  dispatches  were  instantly 

»  Trceveh  Around  the  Baltic,  by  John  Carr  (1804) ;  London, 
1805,  pp.  355-7. 

127 


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ifftiifimiii.iii^ 


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I; 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

carried  to  the  Empress,  who  ordered  her  page- 
in-waiting  to  give  the  bearer  refreshments  and 
a  bed,  and  requested  that  he  might  on  no 
account  be  disturbed.*  Catherine  sent  three 
times,  but  still  he  slept.  *At  length  Captain 
Elphinstone  in  all  his  dishabille'  {sic,  the  author 
was  a  Scot  and  probably  talked  of  *  dishabillies') 
*  was  conducted  to  her  presence  by  her  Secretary, 
when  she  commenced  an  enchanting  conversa- 
tion, in  which  she  complimented  the  gallantry 
and  many  naval  achievements  of  his  family;  . . . 
calling  him  **  My  son,"  "  Now  let  proceed  to 
business  ;  I  have  received  the  dispatches,  which 
have  afforded  me  infinite  satisfaction ;  I  thank 
you  for  your  bravery  and  zeal ;  I  beg  you  will 
describe  to  me  the  position  of  the  ships."  * 
Captain  Elphinstone  did  so,  and  she  took  a 
note  upon  her  pocket-book.  Then  *  as  she 
gave  her  orders  to  the  Commander-in-Chief,, 
she  presented  him  with  a  rouleau  of  ducats,  a 
beautiful  little  French  watch,  and,  although 
very  young,  promoted  him  to  the  rank  of 
Captain.' 

The  services   of  these   Scotsmen   were  in- 

128 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

valuable  to  Russia,  but  yet  irksome.  Their 
nationality  to  a  certain  extent  influenced  the 
foreign  policy  of  their  adopted  country,  and 
forced  it,  whether  it  liked  it  or  no,  to  forgo 
any  bellicose  intentions  against  Great  Britain. 
It  also  forced  the  Empress  Catherine  to  send 
off  that  Scottish  *  naval  adventurer,'  Paul  Jones, 
whom  she  had  made  in  1788  Rear- Admiral,  and 
who  had  held  a  command  at  the  battle  of  Liman 
in  the  Black  Sea.^  The  other  Scots,  when  Paul 
Jones  was  endeavouring  to  return  to  Russia, 
unanimously  threatened  resignation  if  his  return 
was  permitted  ;  and  they  won. 

Catherine,  however,  took  into  her  service 
another  man  from  Scotland,  and  raised  him  to 
high  honour  in  connection  with  her  Ordnance. 
This  was  Sir  Charles  Gascoigne  (his  father  was 
Captain  Woodroffe  Gascoigne,  an  Englishman 
sent  to  *  settle '  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  after 
1746,   and  his   mother  was  the   Hon.  Grizel 

1  He  quarrelled  with  Prince  Potemkin  during  the  expedition 
to  Taurida.  Potemkin  was  the  patron  of  another  Scottish 
adventurer,  one  Colonel  Semple,  who  altered  the  Russian  dis- 
cipline and  planned  the  military  uniforms,  by  no  means  for 
good. 

R  129 


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SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

Elphinstone,   daughter  of  Lord    Elphinstone), 

He  had   been   manager  of  the   Carron   Iron 

Company,    which    had    become    embarrassed. 

Then,  luckily  for  himself,  he  received,  through 

the  medium  and  influence  of  Admiral  Greig,  an 

offer  from  the  Empress  to  cast  shells,  guns  and 

shot  for  her  army.     Taking  his  workmen  with 

him,  he  stole  off  from  Scotland  and  went  to 

Russia,  where  he  formed  a  factory  at  Petrozo- 

vodsk,  near   Lake   Onega,  and  also  managed 

the  mines  of  Olonetz.     He  flourished  there  (as 

did  his  successor  Wilson,  who  was  given  the 

rank    of    General,    and    Charles    Baird,    who 

manufactured  gfuns  at  Kronstadt  and  became  a 

Knight  of  St.  Vladimir,  who  both  went  out 

with  him);  was  made  a  Councillor  and  a  Knight 

of   St.   Vladimir ;  and   died,   leaving  -  a  large 

fortune,  at  St.  Petersburg,   ist  August,   1806. 

He  had  three  daughters  by  his  first  wife,  who 

were  Anne,  Countess  of  Haddington;  Elizabeth, 

wife    of   George    Augustus    Pollen,    Esquire, 

M.P.,    drowned    at     Memel     in     1808 ;    and 

another,  who  married   Baron   Polterazki,  and 

died   at   Petrozovodsk,   nth   December,  1795. 

130 


aL 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

His  second  wife.^  married  in  1797.  'who,  to  the 
charms  of  youth  and  beauty,  unites  the  most 
elegant  accomplishments  and  manners,'  was 
Anastasia-Jessye,  daughter  of  Dr.  Matthew 
Guthrie « (one  of  the  Guthries  of  Hawkerton), 
a  doctor  from  Edinburgh,  Physician  to  the 
Noble  Land  Cadet  Corps,  and  afterwards 
(attached  to  the  Empress's  suite)  to  the 
Emperor  Paul,  having  gained  the  ear  of  the 

Russian  Court. 

The  Empress  Catherine  died  after  a  long 
and  in  some  ways  glorious  reign,  6th  (17th) 
November,  1796,  and  her  son,  the  Emperor 
Paul,  succeeded.  Sir  James  Wylie,  a  Scottish 
surgeon,  from  1790  in  the  Sletski  regiment, 
who,  when  he  had  acquired  name  and  fame, 
had  three  Scottish  assistants,  was  made 
Imperial  Physician,  and  on  the  Emperor's 
sudden  end  in  1801  had  the  delicate  task  of 
giving  the  medical  certificate.  In  doing  so,  he 
stated    that    the  deceased    Emperor    died  of 

iSee  also  K.  Waliszewski's  Paul  I.    She  was  married  in 

1797,  and  remarried,  1807,  Thomson  Grahame  Bonar  of  London. 

»He  edited  his  wife's  Utters  from  the  Crimea.    Cf.  Cart's  A 

Northern  Summer. 

131 


I 


il 


n 


^ 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

'apoplexy/  which  gave  the  Court  great  satis- 
faction, and  he  remained  in  the  highest  favour. 
He  founded  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Academy  of 
St.  Petersburg  (it  has  his  statue),  and  died  full  of 
honours  in  1854,  leaving  his  money  to  the  Tsar, 
who  endowed  with  it  the  hospital  he  had  built. 

The  other  Scot  who  has  a  statue  in  St. 
Petersburg  belongs  really  to  the  reign  of 
Alexander  I.,  the  last  Emperor  who  comes 
within  the  scope  of  this  book,  Prince  Barclay 
de  Tolly.  The  story  of  the  family  is  this. 
They  came  to  Russia  during  the  times  of  the 
Revolution  of  1688,  from  Towy  (Tolly)  in 
Aberdeenshire.  A  descendant  became  Burgo- 
master of  Riga,  and  his  son,  Gottleib  Barclay 
de  Tolly,  was  ennobled — as  a  Russian  officer, 
taking  the  name  ^Bogdan'— and  married  a  Mile. 
Wermelen. 

His  sons  were:   (i)   Bogdan   Bogdanovitch 

(formerly  Emil  Johann),  a  General  in  the  Russian 

service ;    (2)  Michael  Bogdanovitch,  of  whom 

afterwards;   and   (3)   Andrei   Bogdanovitch,  a 

Colonel.     Michael  Bogdanovitch,  whose  statue 

adorns  the  Nevski   Prospekt,  opposite  to  the 

132 


*•. 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

Cathedral   of  Kazan   in   St.    Petersburg,   was 
born  in  1761.     He  entered  the  army  and  rose 
rapidly.     He  distinguished  himself  greatly  in 
the   war  against   Sweden   by  the  passage  of 
Kwarken,  when  the  Russian  troops  under  him 
crossed  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia  on  the  ice.     He 
became   Governor  of  the  conquered  Finland. 
It  was  his  policy  as  Minister  of  War  that  made 
the  Russians  always  retire  before  the  forces  of 
Napoleon,  and  he  helped  to  gain  the  batde  of 
Leipzig.     He  was  made  a  Count,  22nd  May, 
1 81 3,  and  after  the  occupation  of  Paris  was 
created  by  ukase,  30th  October,  181 5,  Prince  of 
the  Empire  of  Russia.     He  died,  181 8,  having 
married  Helen  Ivanovna  van  der  Smitten  (who 
died,  1820).     Their  son,  Ernest  Michaelovitch 
(Ernest    Magnus),    Colonel    and    A.D.C.    to 
the    Emperor   Nicholas    I.,   married    Leocadie 
(Leonilla),  Baronne  de  Campenhausen,  but  had 
no  children.     The  sons  of  his  granduncle  were, 
by  ukase  of  31st  August,  1827,  created  Counts, 
and    in    1859  ^    General    Aleksei    Petrovitch 

^Annuaire  de  la  Noblesse  de  Russie,  par  Roman  I.  Emcrin, 
1889,  pp.  55-56. 

133 


M^- 


m 


! 


>i  i 


llM 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

Weimarn   was   allowed    to    take   the    title   of 
Barclay  de  Tolly- Weimarn. 

The  Comte  de  Balmain,  of  the  Scottish 
family  of  Ramsay  of  Balmain,  was  in  the  same 
reign  the  Russian  Commissioner  appointed  to 
watch  Napoleon,  after  his  fall,  at  Saint  Helena. 
He  married,  when  there,  the  step-daughter 
of  Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  Miss  Johnson.  Lord 
Roseberyi  tells  us  that  his  family  had  been 
settled  in  Russia  for  a  century  and  a  quar- 
ter. 

Another  Russo-Scot  who  fought  against 
Napoleon  was  Alexander  Amatus  Thesleff  (of 
a  Viborg  family),  born  in  1788,  a  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  in  18 1 2.  He  was  Assistant  Governor- 
General  of  his  native  Finland  from  1832  to 
1847. 

A  Russian  of  Scottish  descent,  born  in  18 13, 
glorified  his  country  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  L 
This  was  the  great  romantic  poet  Michael 
Yourievitch  Lermontoff.  His  grandfather  was 
Peter  Lermontoff,  whose  ancestors,  of  the  same 
blood  as  that  which  produced,  ages  before,  the 

*  Napoleotiy  the  Last  Phase,  p.  142. 

134 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

Scottish  poet  Thomas  the  Rymour,  had  gone  to 
Poland  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
like  so  many  of  their  compatriots,  and  had 
strayed  into  Russia  by  way  of  Tula. 

To  diverge  from  Byronic  poetry ;  a  curious 
experiment,  which  might  have  brought  Scot- 
land into  closer  relations  with  Russia,  was 
made  by  the  Emperor  Alexander  in  regard 
to  the  last  Sultan  of  the  Crimea.  This  Khan, 
Aleksei  Ivanovitch  Katti  Gheri  Krim  Gheri,  a 
Moslem,  was  converted  to  Christianity  by  the 
Scottish  missionaries  at  Cavass,  in  the  Cau- 
casus. The  Emperor  noted  this,  and  sent 
him  to  Edinburgh  to  be  educated,  and  then 
permitted  him  to  preach  his  faith  in  Russia. 
The  only  result  was  that  the  Sultan,  when  at 
his  Scottish  University,  married,  in  September, 
1820,  an  Edinburgh  lady.  Miss  Neilson  of 
Millbank,  and  took  her  to  Russia,  but  there, 
we  are  told,  he  made  no  converts ! 

The  Tsar  Alexander  I.  had  an  intimate 
friend,  Saunders,^  of  Scots  descent,  whom  he 
made  an  Aulic  councillor,  and  he  did  not  forget 

1  Moneypenny's  Life  of  Disraeli,  i.  p.  108. 

135 


w-^ 


9 

!■  ''ii 


^■/ 


SCOTTISH  INFLUENCES 

what  his  parents  had  taught  him  of  the  value 
of    Scottish    physicians.      He    employed   two 
Crichtons,  uncle  and  nephew,  of  the  old  family 
of  Frendraught,  as  his  own  physicians,  who  will 
be  the  last  of  the  long  roll  of  Scotsmen  whom 
Russia   has   taken  to  itself,   to   be   mentioned 
in  this  book.      The   first   was   Sir   Alexander 
Crichton,!  a    son   of  Alexander    Crichton    of 
Newington,  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1763.     He 
entered    the    Emperor's    service    in    1804    as 
Physician   in   Ordinary,   and   was    soon   made 
head  of  the  whole  civil   medical   department. 
He  died,  full  of  honours,  in  England,  on  4th 
June,  1856.     The  second  was  his  nephew.  Sir 
Alexander   William    Crichton,    born    in    1791. 
He  married,  in  1820,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Sutt- 
hofif,  another  of  the  Court  Physicians. 

Decorated  and  caressed  by  the  Russian 
Court,  and  knighted  by  George  IV.  in  18 17, 
he  was  made  a  member  of  the  Medical  Council 
and  a  Councillor  of  State.    He  was  thirty  years 

^  An  account  is  given  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography, 
and  a  short  one  of  his  nephew  as  well  in  Anderson's  Scottish 
Nation^  vol.  i.  pp.  726,  727. 

136 


IN  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 

in  the  Russian  service,  during  twenty-four  of 
which  he  was  Physician  to  the  Emperor  and 
his  family,  and  so  kept  green,  far  into  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  success  of  his  country- 
men before  the  eyes  of  the  Russian  people. 


I 


137 


^^^^a^m^timhm 


INDEX 


Airth,  Walter,  50. 
Aleksei,    Michaelovitch,    Tsar, 
9.  10,  17,  34,  37,  43,  44, 

51.  55. 
Petrovitch,   Tsarevitch,   64, 

100,  lOI. 
Alexander   I.,   Emperor,    132, 

134-136. 
Anderson,  Alexander  Magnus, 

84. 
Anna  Ivanovna,  Empress,  77, 

109,  113- 
Anna    Leopoldovna,    Regent, 

80,  86,  no. 
Anna  Petrovna,  Tsarevna,  82, 

"3. 

Arbuthnot,  Andrew,  56,  57. 
Arsenius,  Archbishop,  90. 

Bain,  R.  Nisbet,  32. 
Baird,  Charles,  130. 
Balmain,  Count,  134. 
Bannerman,  Mrs.,  53. 
Barclay  de  Tolly,  Aleksei  Pet- 
rovitch, 124. 

Andrei  Bogdanovitch,  132. 

Bogdan  Bogdanovitch,  132. 

Ernest  Michaelovitch,  133. 

GottUeb,  132. 

Michael,  Prince,  132-134. 
Baskerville,  Miss  Beatrice,  4  n. 
Beer,  Martin,  23. 
Bell,  John  of  Antermony,  82-84 


Best,  Robert,  6. 
Bestucheff,  family  of,  28  ». 
Bockhoven,  Katherine  von,  67. 

Philip  Albrecht  von,  53. 
Bomel,  Dr.,  7  n. 
Bonar,  Thomson  G.,  131  «. 
Bothwell.  Earl  of,  8,  9. 
Bowes,  Sir  Jerome,  7,  8. 
Brown,  General,  113. 
Bruce,     Alexander     Romano- 
vitch,  77. 

Count,  120. 

James,   75,   77,  95,  96,  99, 
103. 

James  Alexandrovitch,  120. 

John,  95,  96. 

Peter  Henry,  95-104,  108. 

Prascovia  Countess,  120-121. 

Roman,  75,  77,  97. 

William,  75. 
Bullough,  J.  M.,  69  «. 
Burnet,  Andrew,  52. 

Bishop,  37. 

Calderwood,  Dr.  Lewis,  114. 

Robert,  52. 
CarUsle,  Earl  of,  53. 
Carmichael,  General,  19,  20. 

Sir  John,  20. 
Carr,  John,  127. 

Robert,  27,  28. 
Catherine  I.,  Empress,  81,  90- 
92,  96,  103,  107. 


INDEX 


138 


Catherine    II.,    Empress,    78- 

119-131- 
Chambers,  Major-General.  84. 

Chancellor,  Richard,  6. 

Charles  I.,   King  of  England, 

9,  35,  36. 

Charles  II..  King  of  England. 

10,  36,  53-55.  61. 
Charles  Edward(Stuart),Prince, 

"5. 
Chamock.    Clement    J.,    76  n, 

121  n. 

Clayhills,  Mr..  55. 

Cock  (?)*  David.  3.  4. 

Collins,  Dr.,  17.  18  «.  23  n,  42, 

43  «. 

Cook,  Dr.  John,  113,  116. 

Crale,  Captain,  27. 

Crawford,  Daniel,  49,  50. 

Daniel,  Major,  69. 

Hugh,  of  Jordanhill,  49. 

Thomas,  50  n. 
Crichton,  Sir  Alexander,  136. 

Alexander,    of    Newington, 

136. 
Sir  Alexander  William,  136, 

137- 
Captain,  27. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  36. 

Crow,  Aegidius,  7  n. 

Dalyell,  Thomas,  of  Binns,  36, 

37.  54- 
Dashkofi,  Princess,  121. 

Vassili  Jakolevitch,  54. 

David, '  Master,'  3,  4. 

Denmark,  John,  King  of,  3,  4. 

Dick,  John,  125. 

Dmitri,  the  False,  22,  23,  26, 

27,  123- 
Docturoff,  Gerasimus,  35. 
Dolgoroukaya  Anastasia,  77. 

Yekaterina,  77,  78,  108. 
Dolgorouki,  Prince  Ivan.  108. 
Donner,  Dr.  Otto,  88. 


Douglas,  General,  in. 

Count  Gustaf.  88. 

Count  Gustaf  Otto,  87,  89. 

Robert.  88. 

Wilhelm,  88. 
Dnimmond,  William  of  Crom- 

lix.  36.  37.  54- 
Drysdale.  Lieut.,  125. 
Dunbar,  Robert,  25. 

Eglinton.  Anna.  Countess  of, 

32  n. 
Elizabeth.   Empress.   77.   no. 

112. 113, 115-6. 119.  i25«. 
Elizabeth.  Queen  of  England. 

6-9.  17  «. 
Elmsall.  William,  87. 
Elphinstone.  Captain,  127-8. 

Gabriel.  19. 

Grizel.  129. 

John,  Admiral.  126-127. 

Lord.  130. 

Samuel  William,  127. 
Engelhard,  Reinhold  von,  23. 
Erskine,  Dr.  Robert.  78.  82. 

Farquharson.  Professor.  84. 
Farserson.  Lady  Mary,  39. 
Feodor  Alekseivitch.  Tsar.  55, 

56. 
Ivanovitch.  Tsar.  7.  22. 

Fletcher,  Giles,  8,  17.  20. 
Forbes.  Captain  James.  34. 
Fox.  Captain.  32. 
Frederick  the  Great,   King  of 

Prussia,  107,  H2. 
Fullarton.  General  John,  113. 

Gadderar,  Bishop  James,  89. 
Galitzin,    Vassili,    Prince,    62, 

63.  68. 
Galloway,  Christopher,  42. 
Game,  Colonel  Thomas,  33. 
Garvine,  Dr.,  82. 

39 


\ 


\\ 


INDEX 


Gascoigne,  Anne,  130. 

Sir  Charles,  129. 

Elizabeth,  130. 

Lady,  131. 

Wcx)droffe,  129. 
George  I.,   King  of  England, 

80,  89. 
Gheri,  Aleksei,  Khan  of  Crimea, 

135. 
Gilbert,  David,  22,  28. 

Thomas,  25,  27. 
Glassford,  Lieut.,  115. 
Glover,  Thomas,  17. 
Godounofi,  Boris,  Tsar,  7,  8,  9, 
22,  24,  98  n. 
Feodor  Borissovitch,  9. 
Gordon,  Lieut. -Col.  Alexander, 

33- 
Alexander,  110  n. 

Aleksei  Alexandrovitch,  64  n, 
69,  70.  So.  104. 

George  Stephen,  56. 

Harry,  68,  70. 

Henry,  Lord,  39. 

James,  Colonel,  65,  68,  83. 

James,  Count,  85. 

James,  85. 

John  of  Glenbucket,  iio». 

Katherine,  68. 

Marie,  68. 

Patrick    of     Auchleuchries, 
General,  37,  47-70. 

Theodorus,  66,  68. 

Thomas,  Admiral,  70,  85-87. 

WilUam,  Captain,  33. 

WilUam,  87. 
Graeme,  Mungo,  of  Garvock, 

114. 
Greig,  Sir  Alexis,  126. 

Samuel  Carlovitch,  Admiral, 
124-126,  130. 

Vorontzoff,  126. 
Grieve,  Dr.,  82  n. 
Guthrie,  Dr.  Matthew,  131. 
Guild,  Wilham,  52. 


Halliday,  Dr.,  82  n,  121. 
Hamel,  Dr.  J.,  3,  17,  24-25. 
Hamilton,  exiles,  21  n,  42-43. 

Alexander,  41. 

Hugo  Johan,  S^. 

Mary  Danielovna,  90,  92, 
Hastings,  Lady  Mary,  6,  7. 
Hay,  William,  50. 

William,  85. 
Horsey,  Sir  Jerome,  7,  8,  13-17, 
18,  19. 

Innes,  Mr.,  115. 

IsmaylofP,  Leoff  Vassilievitch, 

83. 
Ivan  the  Terrible,  Tsar,  5,  6, 

7»  13.  I7»  19.  22. 
Ivan  Alekseivitch,  Tsar,  56,  63. 
Ivan  Antonovitch,  Tsar,  no. 

James  I.,  King  of  England,  7, 

8,  9,  24,  25. 
James  II.,   King  of  England, 

61,  62. 
Jenkinson,  EngUsh  envoy,  6. 
Jones,  Paul,  129. 
Johnson,  Miss,  134. 
Johnston,  Colonel,  115. 

Kalthoff,  Gaspar,  54. 
Kantemir,  Prince,  96. 
Keith,    Alexander   of   Ludqu- 
ham,  41. 

Captain,  32. 

George,  Lieut.,  40,  41,  52. 

James  Francis  Edward,  Mar- 
shal, 107-113. 

JuHana,  4^,  53. 

Robert,  41. 

Sir  Robert,  Bart.,  113. 

William,  41. 
Kennedy,  Dr.  (?),  42. 
Kendrick,  Captain,  27. 
Kirkton,  Hertman,  36. 
Kleigels,  General,  55  n. 
Kocken  or  Kocker,  David,  3-4. 


INDEX 


140 


Kruse,  Admiral,  127. 
Kynninmond,  Colonel  John,  40. 

Lacy,  General  de,  109,"  no. 
Landells,  Alexander,  50, 
Lefort,  Francis,  56,  74,  104. 
Leigh,  John  Studdy,  3  n. 
Leontieff,     Zamiati     Feodoro- 

vitch,  49. 
Leshe,    Sir   Alexander,    32-33, 

34-35,  39.  40- 
Alexander,  40. 

George,  40. 

General,  115. 

Theodorus,  39. 
Let,  Andrew,  25. 
Lermontoff,    Michael    Yourie- 

vitch,  134-5- 
Lermontoff  (Learmonth),  Peter 

134- 
Leviston,  Colonel  Alexander,  70. 

Lieven,  General,  in. 

Lindsay,  John,  124. 

Lingett,  Jeamy,  15. 

Lome,  Lidert,  53. 

Lowe,  Sir  Hudson,  134. 

Lowenwolde,  Count,  108,  iii. 

Lubomirski,  Constantine,  49. 

MacEwan,  Donald,  114  m. 
Mackenzie,  George,  79. 
M'Naughton,  Mr.,  54. 
Mallock,  Mr.,  114. 
Marfa  the  Nun,  31. 
Margaret,  Captain  J.,  22,  25. 
Marischal,  Earl,  107,  112. 
Marischal,     Mary,     Countess, 

41  n,  107. 
Marryat,  Horace,  87. 
Mary,  Queen  of  England,  5. 
Mathison,  Captain,  32. 
Matveeff,  Artamon  Sergievitch, 

22,  43,  44. 
Menschikoff,    Prince,    78,    86, 

103,  108. 


Menzies,  Paul,  37,  38,  50,  52, 
70. 

Sir  Gilbert,  37. 

Thomas,  38,  39,  53. 
Merrick,  John,  9,  24. 
Mertheus,  Eva,  iii  ff. 
Michael,    Feodorovitch,    Tsar, 

24.  31-33.  42. 
Mikuhn,  Gregory  Ivanovitch,  8. 
Miloslavskaya,  Maria,  43. 
Miloslavski,     Ilia     Danillo- 

vitch,  51. 
Milotawski,   Feodor  Michaelo- 

vitch,  38,  52. 
Miln,  Peter,  114. 
Mniszek,  Mar5ma,  23,  26  n. 
Moncrieffe,  Margaret,  69. 

Sir  I1.W*.  as,  70. 
Mony penny,  William,  86. 
Moritzen,  Thomas,  23. 
Mounsey,  Dr.  James,  114. 
Miinnich,  General,  109. 
Murray,  W.  Keith,  107  n. 
Muscovy,  Vassili,  Grand  Duke 

of,  3.  4- 
Mustapha  Kara,  56. 

Nagoi,   Maria  Feodorovna,  6, 

22. 
Napoleon,  133-134. 
Narishkin,  Feodor  Poleukhto- 

vitch,  22. 
NathaUa,  43,  44,  65. 
NathaUa,  Tsarevna,  87. 
Neilson,  Miss,  135. 
Nepeja,  Ossip  Gregorievitch,  5. 

Ogilvie,  Mary,  47. 
Ogilvy,  Baron  George,  73. 

General  George,  73-74. 

James,  Lord,  of  Airlie,  73. 

Captain  Patrick,  of  Muirtoun, 

73- 
Captain  Thomas,  8  n. 

Orloff,  Alexis,  125,  127. 


141 


I 


•■■MMiaii 


J 


INDEX 


Paul,  Emperor,  122,  131,  132. 
Philarete,  Patriarch,  31,  33. 
Peter  the  Great,  Emperor,  44, 

56,  61,  67-70,  73-81,  91-95. 

103,  107,  119. 
Peter  II.,  Emperor,  10 1,  107- 

109. 
Peter  III.,  Emperor,  119. 
Peters,  Maria,  84. 
Pollen,  George  A.,  130. 
Polterazki,  Baron,  130. 
Potemkin,  Prince,  124,  129  n. 

Rae,  Peter,  54. 
Ramsay,  Allan,  114  «. 
Randolph,  the  Ambassador,  6. 
Razevill,  '  Duke  Ian,'  48. 
Razoumovski.Count,ii6, 125  n. 
Reenen,  Johann  von,  23. 
Rehbinder,  Heldne  K.  de,  21  «. 
Robertson,  Alexander,  of  Stro- 
wan,  85. 

Duncan,  85. 
Rogerson,  Dr.  John,  1 21-123. 
Roonaer,  Elizabeth,  68. 
Roumiantsoff,  Count,  120. 
Rosebery,  Lord,  134. 
Ross,  Margaret,  86. 
Ruthven,  Jean,  32  n. 
Ruskinski,  Hetman,  27. 
Rutherford,  Sir  John,  123. 

Robert,  123-4. 
Ryter  (  Renter),   Sir  WiUiam, 
39,  53- 

Saint  George,  Chevalier  de,  80. 
Sanderson,  Captain,  32. 
Saunders,  M.,  135. 
Savin,  Andrei  Gregorievitch,  6. 
Selkirk,  Dr.,  114. 
Semple,  Colonel,  129  n. 
Shuiski,  Vassili,  Tsar,  25,  27. 
Sievers,  Admiral,  86. 


Silvester,  Daniel,  6. 
Simpson,  Dr.  Robert,  126. 
Smith,  Patrick,  68. 
Smitten,  Helen  I.  van  der,  133. 
Snivius,  Colonel,  69. 
Soltikova,  Prascovia,  Tsaritza, 

91. 
Sophia,  Regent,  56,  61-63,  66, 

98  ff. 
Stevenson,  Colonel,  65. 
Stewart,  Colonel,  19. 

Robert,  52. 
StirUng,  Sir  Henry,  80,  87. 
Strasbourg,  Colonel,  68. 
Stuart,  Prince  Charles  Edward, 

"5- 
Suchin,   Margaret  A.  C.  von, 

"3- 

Sutherland,  the  Court  Banker. 

123. 
Sutthoff,  Dr.,  136. 
Sweden,    Gustavus   Adolphus, 

King  of,  9. 

Tarakanoff,  Princess,  125. 
TheslefE,  Alexander  A.,  134. 

Urquhart,  Sir  Thomas,  33. 

Vlasseff,  Afanassi  Ivanovitch, 

25. 
Volunski,  Ambassador,  25. 

WaUszewski,  K.,  76. 

William  III.,  King  of  England, 

64. 
Winram,     Lieutenant-Colonel, 

53. 
Wylie,  Sir  James,  123,  131-132. 

Yekaterina,  Tsarevna,  79. 
York,  Captain,  27. 

Zolkiewski,  Hetman,  24,  25,  27. 


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